Medicaid_Misinfo

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Right-wing media figures make false claims about Medicaid cuts in the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”

The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the legislation could revoke health care from millions of Americans

Written by Jack Winstanley & Jack Wheatley

Research contributions from Helena Hind & Jane Lee

Published

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has warned that Medicaid cuts in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would cause millions of people to lose health coverage. Right-wing media figures — who have continued to support the legislation in spite of this warning — have misled their audiences about the extent of the cuts and who will be impacted by them. 

Some right-wing media figures and influencers have downplayed the House bill’s Medicaid cuts, claiming Democrats are “lying” when they point out the negative impact the legislation would have on Americans. 

Others baselessly claimed the cuts will simply be “rooting out fraud and abuse” and won’t affect coverage for “people who deserve it.” Instead, they say the legislation strips funding for undocumented immigrants and people who are “abusing the system.” 

Conservative pundits have also praised the proposed work requirements for Medicaid enrollment, suggesting these requirements will affect only “able-bodied, childless adults” who need to “get off the couch.”

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  • The Congressional Budget Office warned that millions will lose access to health care under the GOP House bill, and the Senate’s version is even more stringent

    • Congressional Republicans passed the President Donald Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on May 22, despite projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that millions of people will lose health care benefits as a result of changes to Medicaid. As NBC News reported ahead of the House bill's passage, “the legislation is expected to rescind health coverage for 8.6 million people, according to CBO, although the number could change given that the revised bill triggers some changes earlier.” [Reuters, 5/22/25; NBC News, 5/22/25; Medicare Rights Center, 5/8/25]
    • The Senate has considered even deeper cuts to Medicaid, including work requirements for parents of kids ages 15 and up. While the House passed a version of the bill that exempted “all adults with dependents” from work requirements, the Senate version reportedly includes a work requirement for parents of children 15 or older. [Axios, 6/18/25, CNN, 6/16/25; The Hill, 6/24/25]
    • The CBO has estimated that millions of people will lose access to health care benefits as a result of the bill’s changes to Medicaid enrollment. Additionally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that “roughly 16 million people by 2034 would lose health coverage and become uninsured because of the Medicaid cuts, the bill’s failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace coverage, and other harmful ACA marketplace changes.” [The Associated Press, 6/4/25; CBO, 6/24/25; American Hospital Association, accessed 6/24/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 6/6/25]

  • Right-wing media have downplayed the bill, denied that it cuts Medicaid, and accused critics of lying about any cuts

    • Before the bill was drafted, Fox figures repeatedly assured viewers that Trump and congressional Republicans would spare Medicaid from deep cuts. One Fox News host stated that a budget framework put out by the GOP in February has “nothing to do with Medicaid,” and another claimed that Republicans are “only going after Medicaid and Medicare for fraud.” [Media Matters, 3/6/25]
    • In the days after the CBO released one of its reports on the bill, Fox News dedicated less than 30 seconds to discussing the potential insurance crisis. [Media Matters, 6/5/25]
    • Fox host Sean Hannity stated that “there’s no cuts that I know of that exist in that bill.” Hannity also said, “My reading of it is the only thing that would be cut are those people that don't belong on the rolls that have given fraudulent information that will be weeded out of services they never deserved in the first place.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/5/25]
    • On War Room, Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, argued that “the One Big Beautiful Bill does not take away people's benefits.” Roth added that “it does go after the waste, fraud, and abuse and the green energy tax credits.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 6/13/25]
    • Hannity claimed that Democrats are “lying” by saying “people are going to die” after the proposed Medicaid cuts. Hannity underlined his point: “No cuts.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/5/25]
    • On his radio show the next day, Hannity said, “I'm just tired of Democrats lying to us. There is no cuts to Medicaid, no cuts to Medicare, no cuts to Social Security.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 6/6/25]
    • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles claimed that the bill is “not cutting health care from anyone,” adding that “it is correcting a wrong that currently exists in this country.” Knowles also said that there are “1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid, a program that is designed only for American citizens, and specifically only the most vulnerable American citizens.” According to FactCheck.org, it is not true that 1.4 million undocumented people are enrolled in Medicaid. Instead, “people without verified citizenship, nationality, or satisfactory immigration status” would lose coverage through “state-only funded programs.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 6/3/25; FactCheck.org, 5/23/25]
    • Right-wing commentator Nick Sortor, appearing on The Benny Show, argued that it’s a “total lie” that “millions and millions of Americans are going to lose their health insurance.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 5/22/25]
    • On his radio show, Hannity called Medicaid spending a “clear, present danger.” He also claimed that Democrats are “lying and trying to scare seniors” by “claiming people will die if this ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is in fact passed.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 6/6/25]
    • Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro claimed, “This is not a cut to Medicaid. It is a cut to future Medicaid growth.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 6/4/25]

  • Right-wing media figures have baselessly claimed the cuts will root out “fraud and abuse” affecting “illegal immigrants” and not “people who deserve it”

    • Right-wing claims of Medicaid fraud are not supported by evidence. According to KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation), only 5.1% of Medicaid payments are considered to be “improper.” Rather, Georgetown professor Andy Schneider reports that “fraud against Medicaid is mostly committed by providers,” including pharmacies, ambulance service providers, and diagnostic labs, rather than beneficiaries. [KFF, 3/18/25; Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, 1/10/25]
    • Undocumented migrants are “not eligible for traditional Medicaid” coverage. But that has not stopped the White House, congressional Republicans, and right-wing media from falsely alleging that “1.4 million Illegal aliens who are currently improperly receiving Medicaid benefits will be kicked off the program.” [Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, 5/21/25; Roll Call, 5/19/25; Twitter/X, 5/13/25; FactCheck.org, 5/23/25; Breitbart, 5/15/25]
    • Michael Knowles claimed that the bill “is not taking health care funding away from the people who deserve it,” but rather “it’s taking Medicaid funding away from the 1.4 million illegals who are on Medicaid.” Knowles added, “It's taking Medicaid funding away from people who are abusing the system, who are not legally entitled to it, people who refuse to work, people who don't meet even basic requirements to avail themselves of health care and welfare.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 6/4/25]
    • On Hannity, former House speaker and current Fox contributor Newt Gingrich argued that the proposed Medicaid cuts will not “take anybody deserving of help off the Medicaid rolls,” but will impact “illegal immigrants … people who refuse to work and … people who are crooks.” He went on, saying, “Why the Democratic Party would want to be the party of illegal immigrants, crooks, and people who refuse to work is beyond me.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/3/25]
    • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh argued that “the supposed cuts to Medicaid are of course just about rooting out fraud and abuse.” Walsh added that “there’s a lot of it,” and specifically called out “getting illegal aliens off of the program, for example.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 6/3/25]
    • Former New York mayor and current host Rudy Giuliani stated that Medicaid is “riddled with fraud” and called it a “very, very poorly run program.” Giuliani also argued that Republicans “should take out a certain amount of money that you honestly and in good faith expect is going to be reduced because you're putting in measures to cut out the fraud, which they're doing.” [YouTube, America’s Mayor Live, 6/2/25]
    • Gateway Pundit host Elijah Schaffer claimed that “Mike Johnson reveals $50 Billion in Medicaid fraud” and that “the new budget won’t cut Medicaid but it will cut this waste.” [Twitter/X, 2/27/25]
    • Radio host Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, cheered the cuts to Medicaid, posting, “Save the bloated program, MAKE THE CUTS.” His post said, “Congress must protect Medicaid. We cannot keep funding people who are not qualified: criminals, able-bodied workers, illegals, etc.” [Twitter/X, 4/17/25]

  • Conservative pundits have supported the bill’s work requirements, which could take coverage away from more than 5 million people

    • 64% of adults ages 19-64 with Medicaid work full or part time, and another 32% do not work because they are caretakers or students, are retired, ill, or disabled, or simply could not find work. Analysis from the Center for American Progress concluded that the proposed work-reporting requirements would “strip coverage from hundreds of thousands of children” and cause job losses at the state level in the health care, construction, retail, and food production sectors. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the CBO estimated that 5.2 million people would lose coverage if they didn’t meet a “harsh work requirement.” [Axios, 5/13/25; Center for American Progress, 5/9/25; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 6/6/25]
    • Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk said of work requirements: “If you are able-bodied, get off the couch.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 6/6/25]
    • Ben Shapiro dismissed the proposed work requirements as “not even remotely a full-time job.” He continued, arguing that people should “recognize the connection” between politicians “talking about millions of people being thrown off their health care” and “somebody shooting a health care executive.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 6/9/25]
    • Fox News host Charlie Hurt falsely argued that the work requirement “saves Medicaid, by not paying, first of all, people who are ineligible for it.” He went on, claiming, “It puts in work requirements for, you know, 30-year-old, able-bodied males without dependents, and it says, you know, if you are going to get welfare from the government, you're going to need to work, and that seems like a really low standard to a regular person.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/19/25]
    • Shapiro pushed back on the claim that the bill would “strip health care coverage for more than 10 million people,” arguing that “the idea that people should not have to work in order to receive Medicaid if they are otherwise healthy and young is silly.” Doubling down, he argued that Medicaid cuts are not “stripping coverage," but rather “saying you need to do the bare minimum.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 5/16/25]
    • One America News Network host Matt Gaetz claimed that “Obamacare really ruined Medicaid for those the program was initially intended to help,” and claimed that the Affordable Care Act “over-burdened it with able-bodied, childless adults.” [OANN, The Matt Gaetz Show, 6/3/25]