As Democrats step up their attacks on Republicans for voting to take away Medicaid health insurance from over 11 million low-income people, GOP lawmakers, like U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), are saying that Medicaid was not cut under the Big Beautiful Bill because total spending for the program will still increase over the next ten years.
But nonpartisan fact-checkers and budget analysts have repeatedly concluded that the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), in fact, cut money that was budgeted to pay for Medicaid over the next 10 years, resulting in an estimated 11.8 million people losing health insurance nationally over those 10 years — including tens of thousands in Evans’ district. The BBB’s cuts mostly paid for tax cuts for wealthy people.
Yet, once again, Evans told CBS4 political specialist Shaun Boyd last week, “There will be more money going into Medicaid every single year for the next 10 years — that’s how long you do a federal budget for, for the 10 years — there will be more money going into Medicaid. It will just be protected from that rampant fraud that Democrats and Democrat socialists allowed to fester in Colorado for years.”
In other statements, Evans has said directly that the Big Beautiful Bill didn’t cut Medicaid: “We’re not cutting Medicaid,” he said last year when confronted in Washington, D.C. “Medicaid spending goes up under this.”
Adam Fox, the deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI), told the Colorado Times Recorder the “real fraud” is cutting health care to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
“Saying you didn’t vote to cut $900 billion from Medicaid when that is precisely what the Congressional Budget Office shows is shameful,” said Fox. “Cutting Medicaid doesn’t target fraud, waste, and abuse. It cuts care for millions of Americans. Kicking people off of coverage in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and huge corporations is the real fraud here.”
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) agreed that Evans “voted to rip health care away from millions.”
“Gabe Evans voted to give the largest transfer of wealth in US history from working people to the ultra-wealthy, and families across his district are paying the price,” said Pettersen. “He voted to rip health care away from millions, and food assistance away from kids and seniors in need. It has never been more difficult for regular people to make ends meet, and yet, he stands by this vote. I’m confident that his constituents will remember who Gabe fought for this November.”
In the CBS4 interview last week, Evans was flanked by Mike Johnson, speaker of the U.S. House, who expressed pride at passing the BBB.
“We slowed the spending because we got millions, millions of illegal aliens and ineligible recipients off of the program that saves it and strengthens it for others,” said Johnson. “That’s a program integrity change. It was long overdue, and I’m really proud we delivered that.”
U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) called the Medicaid cuts “cruel.”
“Gabe Evans and his Republican colleagues voted to cut healthcare for tens of thousands of Coloradans. Because of their Big Ugly Bill, working families are paying more for healthcare or losing their insurance altogether. It’s cruel, it’s wrong, and it’s why Colorado families will hold Republicans accountable in November.”
