Trump’s plan to gut Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires ‘would be devastating for Nevadans,’ senator warns

Nevada Democratic US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said a Republican plan to cut taxes on the rich can only be offset by about $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.

Nevada Democratic US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Monday renewed a warning that a tax cut proposal endorsed by President Donald Trump would require lawmakers to reduce Medicaid funding by hundreds of billions over the next decade — a decision she said that would almost certainly impact health care coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income Nevadans and their family members.  

A framework for that proposal was passed by the Republican-controlled US House earlier this month, and calls for more than $1 trillion in cuts to federal healthcare, education, and agricultural programs over the next decade. 

Speaking to reporters while touring the Nevada Health Centers’ Martin Luther King Family Center in Las Vegas’ Historic West Side, Cortez Masto said a March 5 letter published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed her party’s assertions that reduction in funding of that magnitude could only be sustained by roughly $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) during that timeframe. The CBO is a nonpartisan agency within the legislative branch that helps determine the fiscal impact of legislation formed in Congress.

It would also potentially reduce benefits for nearly half of the estimated 800,000 Nevadans currently on Medicaid, Cortez Masto said.

“If President Trump moves ahead with his plan to cut Medicaid, it would be devastating for Nevada,” Cortez Masto said. “Our healthcare system would be strained beyond capacity … primary care for Nevadans would become unaffordable, and if these Nevadans can’t see their primary care providers on a regular basis, it’ll be harder to maintain their health and they’ll get sicker more often.” 

The House GOP proposal is currently going through a markup process in the US Senate — which is also controlled by Republicans — but it’s not yet clear whether it has the support to make it to Trump’s desk in its current form. The package could pass, however, without any Democratic support, and if enacted, the tax cut package would extend approximately $4.6 trillion in tax cuts signed into law by Trump in 2017, according to Reuters. 

A 2024 analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that Trump’s initial tax cut package disproportionately vastly benefitted the nation’s wealthiest over middle- and low-income earners, as well as large corporations. The top 1% of earners — those who made more than $775,000 — received an average annual tax cut of about $60,000, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 compared to the bottom 60% of earners. 

The think tank also found that Trump’s 2017 reduction of the corporate tax rate (from 35% to 21%) failed to trickle down to most rank-and-file workers. The first Trump administration claimed the corporate tax cut would translate to about a $4,000 annual boost to household income — but research shows that workers who earn less than $114,000 saw “no change in earnings.” 

At the same time, the average salary for business executives increased sharply, according to the analysis. 

MORE: Nevada Democrats bring guests who’ll be impacted by Trump’s funding cuts to Congressional address

“This president is playing with Nevadans’ lives so that he can line the pockets of the ultra-wealthy,” Cortez Masto continued. 

Cortez Masto said she wanted to meet with leaders at Nevada Health Centers to gain a better understanding of how its network of clinics could be impacted by the potential Medicaid cuts. Founded in 1977, Nevada Health Centers is a federally-funded Community Health Center that specializes in serving uninsured, underinsured, and geographically-isolated patients with 20 clinics across the state. 

Nevada Health Centers Executive Vice President J.C. Flowers told reporters that about 40% of the system’s clientele receive Medicaid benefits, but it’s currently unclear how the proposed cuts would impact the network’s ability to provide care. 

“I hate to speculate on that, but there are significant ripple effects that could be very impactful for the populations we serve,” Flowers said, noting cuts could also impact the ability to operate mobile and telehealth services. “If funding is cut, can we support all of our locations?” 

Large-scale Medicaid cuts would almost certainly impact coverage on an individual basis — particularly in rural areas, Flowers added, noting that a reduction in an individual’s Medicaid benefits could mean that a person is no longer able to afford preventative care. Instead, they might only visit a hospital or urgent care to receive acute care, which can not only be more costly, but may come too late to stave off additional, compounding health issues.

Flowers said the so-called wraparound services offered by health clinics like Nevada Health Centers are especially important for patients who might not have access to private practices. In addition to general practitioner care and pharmaceutical services, clinics like the Nevada Health Centers also offer maternal healthcare and other specialized forms of care. 

“We’re just trying to make sure that we’re giving [people] the care that they need at the time they need it,” Flowers said. “We don’t want to squeeze the balloon and have those costs go into the acute side, because they’re much more expensive. You can do a lot more with those dollars on the front end than you can do on the back end.”