Screenshots of some select Fox News OBBB Medicaid coverage / interviews

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Fox News falsely denies GOP's “One Big Beautiful Bill” will impact Medicaid while defending cuts in the bill

Nearly 12 million people are estimated to lose health coverage — but Fox hosts and guests insist Republican cuts to Medicaid are only targeting “waste, fraud, and abuse”

Written by Isabella Sherk & Emma Mae Weber

Published

On Fox News, network hosts and guests — including multiple Trump administration officials and Republican members of Congress — have repeatedly pushed false claims about cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces in the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which is estimated to cause nearly 12 million Americans to lose their health insurance and cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid funding over the next decade.

Some of these figures have completely denied that the Medicaid cuts exist, calling claims that people will lose health insurance coverage under the GOP bill “ridiculous” or “nonsense.” Others have admitted that the cuts exist, but insist that they will only impact “waste, fraud, and abuse” — citing undocumented immigrants and able-bodied people who they say should be working as examples.

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  • Congress is poised to cut Medicaid and ACA marketplaces, causing a projected nearly 12 million people to lose health insurance

    • The Senate’s version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would leave 11.8 million more people uninsured by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This figure is more than the 10.8 million people estimated to be kicked off their health insurance in the House-passed version of the bill, according to an earlier CBO estimate. The latest CBO report on the Senate’s reconciliation package also estimated the bill would add $3.3 trillion in new debt over the next 10 years, while “federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare would be reduced by more than $1.1 trillion over that period — with more than $1 trillion of those cuts coming from Medicaid alone.” [Axios, 6/29/25; The New York Times, 6/29/25]
    • The Senate draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” makes deeper cuts to Medicaid than the House version, including adding work requirements for parents of children over 14. CNN reports: “Both chambers would require certain able-bodied adults ages 19-64 to work to maintain their Medicaid benefits for the first time in the program’s 60-year history. But the Senate version would impose the work requirement on parents of children ages 14 and older, while the House version would exempt parents of dependent children.” [CNN, 6/29/25]
    • According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 64% of adults with Medicaid already work full- or part-time, while another 32% are caretakers, are ill or disabled, attend school, or are retired. Efforts to impose work requirements in Georgia have gone poorly due to technical glitches and difficulties in confirming employment for informal jobs. Only 7,500 of the nearly 250,000 people eligible enrolled in the program, and Axios reported that “there were similar negative results in Arkansas, where a work requirement reportedly pushed 18,000 people off of benefits in less than a year's time.” [Axios, 5/13/25; ProPublica, 6/26/25]

  • Fox hosts and lawmakers falsely claimed there will be “no cuts” to Medicaid

    • On America’s Newsroom, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) said, “No one who is eligible for Medicaid will lose their Medicaid,” and claimed that this bill will strengthen the program for “truly needy people.” Tenney said Democrats are using “scare tactics” to suggest that Republicans will “throw grandma off the cliff.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 5/22/25]
    • On The Ingraham Angle, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, “I am glad there are no Medicaid benefit cuts. That’s good. That is what the president said.” Hawley pivoted and said the most important part of the bill is the “big, beautiful tax cuts for working people.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/17/25]
    • Fox News host Sean Hannity wrongly declared, “There are no cuts in this bill.” Hannity went on to claim that Republicans are actually “increasing dramatically spending [on] Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security over the next 10 years.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/6/25]
    • Mehmet Oz, director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, claimed on Hannity that Congress is increasing Medicaid spending “in every scenario that I’ve seen, including the one that’s in the current One Big Beautiful Bill.” Oz claimed, “We project $200 billion of more money being spent on Medicaid.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/5/25]
    • On America’s Newsroom, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said, “The bottom line is that we are not taking away anybody's Medicaid, we are definitely not taking away anybody’s Medicare. What we're doing is we’re going after waste, fraud, and abuse.” Hassett had been on Fox the previous month claiming, “Public services are not going to be slashed. This is ridiculous.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/30/25; The Story with Martha MacCallum, 5/22/25]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), “What do you say to the Democrats that are pushing this narrative — that's not true — that Republicans are cutting Medicare and Medicaid?” Johnson responded, “Yeah, it’s, of course, nonsense.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/24/25]
    • Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said it was “not true” that the bill will cut “hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and Medicare to give tax breaks to the wealthy.” [Fox News, The Five, 5/23/25]

  • When they did admit to Medicaid cuts, figures on Fox claimed they solely target “freeloaders” and those taking advantage of the system

    • On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told people at risk of being kicked off Medicaid to “get to work,” saying, “The only way you’re going to get off the program is if you say you do not want to work. I don't believe we ought to be providing free health care, free housing, free food that people that are able-bodied, can work, and just say, eh, I don’t want to work.” Scott also attacked “blue state governors” for “gaming the system to take care of illegal immigrants and adults without chronic illness. Let's focus the program on what people need and get people healthy again — keep them back to work.” [Fox News, Fox News Sunday, 6/8/25]
    • On Fox & Friends, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) said we need to make sure “working-aged men without dependents are not getting a handout” and that “illegal immigrants aren’t receiving Medicaid.” McCormick also said, “We need to protect Medicaid for the vulnerable people for whom it’s for.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/3/25]
    • Appearing on The Faulkner Focus, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, “There are some sticking points around getting the freeloaders and the fraudsters out of Medicare and Medicaid.” She said people in Tennessee don’t want “freeloaders and fraudsters getting services that are intended for the American citizen.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 6/24/25]
    • On Fox’s Big Weekend Show, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said, “President Trump has been very clear: We are not going to cut Medicaid and Medicare benefits for seniors or for our most vulnerable … It’s about taking people that should not be on the rolls off the rolls.” He qualified this statement by saying the “American people … want to see waste, fraud, and abuse eliminated from the federal government, including Medicaid.” [Fox News, The Big Weekend Show, 6/8/25]
    • On Fox & Friends Weekend, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said the goal is “requiring able-bodied individuals who can work” to “go to work.” He said states like California are taking advantage of Medicaid, and “that’s what we want to do as Republicans — we’re here to protect the Medicaid program until we can start fixing our health care challenges.” Host Charlie Hurt said the bill’s “Medicaid reforms” are “very impressive.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 5/24/25]
    • Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich said the bill does not take “anybody deserving of help off the Medicaid rolls.” Gingrich said, “Everything they say about Medicaid cuts is a lie — it’s a plain-out lie because the fact is this new beautiful big bill doesn’t take anybody deserving of help off the Medicaid rolls. No one. It takes off illegal immigrants, it takes off people who refuse to work, and it takes off people who are crooks.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/3/25]