Roy: We should not be giving more to Medicaid than Medicare
May 15, 2025
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box today to discuss the state of negotiations on the House Republican reconciliation bill, reforms to Medicaid, and more.
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On Medicaid Expansion:
"The President United States, President Trump, and his Secretary of Treasury, Treasury Bessent, are doing a fantastic job, and the Secretary has laid out a objective of obviously, getting our deficits down to 3% of GDP through strong economic growth, through the tax policy that we want to extend, that the President put forward. I believe that's one piece of the puzzle that we must go do. But right now, we are not going to address the key drivers of spending that will make it impossible for the President and the Secretary to achieve that objective. Bond markets are on a knife's edge. You know that, and I know that, and that is necessary for the free flow of capital to have that economic growth. If we continue to allow Medicaid to consume our budget and allow us to continue to drive that budget up so deficits go up, then we're not going to be able to achieve those objectives."
"Medicaid right now is now a trillion dollar higher baseline than when we came in under Biden. We are spending $620 billion a year on Medicaid, compared to $400 billion in 2019 and if we allow this to continue where we're, as you said, continue to fund the able body in massive expansion states, heavily in blue states. If we were doing that at a seven times dollar value, imagine that, if you're listening to this, we the federal government are funding Medicaid seven times higher for the able bodied than for those who need it, the vulnerable, the sick, the people who truly Medicaid was designed for. What kind of a country does that? It's ridiculous."
"And by the way, if we do this, we're going to cement Obamacare, and the 10 non expansion states like Texas will have incredible pressure to expand, and that will eat up all of the so called savings in this bill, which, by the way, are back loaded. You know that, and I know that. And if you have back loaded savings, they never materialize. That means deficits go up, and under our bill, debt will be $56 trillion in a decade. That's not winning. We've got to change it. Republicans should do better."
On Flaws in Current Medicaid Reforms:
"I couldn't believe it when I read those were the provisions that the work requirements were supposed to be the core engine of Medicaid reform, which isn't good enough. You have to deal with Medicaid. You have to deal with the expansion population. You have to do with the you have to deal with the money laundering. But the work requirements were basic. They don't kick into 2029 they have waivers even once they kick in."
On Fiscal Responsibility and Medicaid Reform:
"We should do the right thing. Let's do the fiscally responsible thing. But here's what's really important. Let's make sure that people who are vulnerable and are sick they're the ones that the program is focused on. Let's preserve capital and free up our health care system so we can drive down health care prices and free it up for the average hard working American. We have plans to do that, strong, robust health savings accounts, getting the competition back into the system. We can do that, and you can do that by drawing down all these subsidies on Medicaid, which are subsidizing blue states and massive expansion states at the expense of the non expansion states and the vulnerable at the expense the expense of the vulnerable for the able body, I think that's a mistake."
"We should not be giving Medicaid to anyone who is ineligible, including those who are illegal, and we should kill all the scams the blue states are using to launder federal money to all of their ridiculous programs. Republicans should lead to support the president. They're not right now. I can't support the bill as it is."
On Gaining Republican Support:
"There's a good chunk of my colleagues that are with me on the fiscal conservative side, but they're also struggling because they're deferential to the president, which I understand.
"The President United States, President Trump, and his Secretary of Treasury, Treasury Bessent, are doing a fantastic job, and the Secretary has laid out a objective of obviously, getting our deficits down to 3% of GDP through strong economic growth, through the tax policy that we want to extend, that the President put forward. I believe that's one piece of the puzzle that we must go do. But right now, we are not going to address the key drivers of spending that will make it impossible for the President and the Secretary to achieve that objective. Bond markets are on a knife's edge. You know that, and I know that, and that is necessary for the free flow of capital to have that economic growth. If we continue to allow Medicaid to consume our budget and allow us to continue to drive that budget up so deficits go up, then we're not going to be able to achieve those objectives."
"Medicaid right now is now a trillion dollar higher baseline than when we came in under Biden. We are spending $620 billion a year on Medicaid, compared to $400 billion in 2019 and if we allow this to continue where we're, as you said, continue to fund the able body in massive expansion states, heavily in blue states. If we were doing that at a seven times dollar value, imagine that, if you're listening to this, we the federal government are funding Medicaid seven times higher for the able bodied than for those who need it, the vulnerable, the sick, the people who truly Medicaid was designed for. What kind of a country does that? It's ridiculous."
"And by the way, if we do this, we're going to cement Obamacare, and the 10 non expansion states like Texas will have incredible pressure to expand, and that will eat up all of the so called savings in this bill, which, by the way, are back loaded. You know that, and I know that. And if you have back loaded savings, they never materialize. That means deficits go up, and under our bill, debt will be $56 trillion in a decade. That's not winning. We've got to change it. Republicans should do better."
On Flaws in Current Medicaid Reforms:
"I couldn't believe it when I read those were the provisions that the work requirements were supposed to be the core engine of Medicaid reform, which isn't good enough. You have to deal with Medicaid. You have to deal with the expansion population. You have to do with the you have to deal with the money laundering. But the work requirements were basic. They don't kick into 2029 they have waivers even once they kick in."
On Fiscal Responsibility and Medicaid Reform:
"We should do the right thing. Let's do the fiscally responsible thing. But here's what's really important. Let's make sure that people who are vulnerable and are sick they're the ones that the program is focused on. Let's preserve capital and free up our health care system so we can drive down health care prices and free it up for the average hard working American. We have plans to do that, strong, robust health savings accounts, getting the competition back into the system. We can do that, and you can do that by drawing down all these subsidies on Medicaid, which are subsidizing blue states and massive expansion states at the expense of the non expansion states and the vulnerable at the expense the expense of the vulnerable for the able body, I think that's a mistake."
"We should not be giving Medicaid to anyone who is ineligible, including those who are illegal, and we should kill all the scams the blue states are using to launder federal money to all of their ridiculous programs. Republicans should lead to support the president. They're not right now. I can't support the bill as it is."
On Gaining Republican Support:
"There's a good chunk of my colleagues that are with me on the fiscal conservative side, but they're also struggling because they're deferential to the president, which I understand.