Senator Marshall: We Will Strengthen and Preserve Medicaid

Senator Marshall Joins Squawk Box to Discuss the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’

Washington – On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Joe Kernen and Becky Quick on Squawk Box to discuss President Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill,’ the preservation of Medicaid for those who need it most, and the ongoing negotiations in the House and Senate.

Click HERE or on the image above to watch the full interview.

On how the OBBB presents the largest tax increase in American history:

“…The greatest challenge that America faces is our national debt. But the purpose of this bill is to prevent the largest tax increase in American history. We think that by stopping that tax increase and other provisions that the average American family is going to get to keep $1,000 a month more of their hard-earned money. It’s obviously going to secure the border, [and] it’s going to cut $1.7 trillion in spending. So, this is a step in the right direction.

“You know, Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. So, the first thing we have to do is grow the economy. Then we need to flatten spending, and over the next four years, get to those pre-pandemic spending levels. I think it’s very feasible. We’ll take a bite of the apple now, we’re going to have to take a couple more bites as these next three years go along, though.”

On how to improve Medicaid for Americans who need it:

“We need to strengthen and preserve Medicaid for those who need it the most. As a physician, as an obstetrician, we took care of everybody, regardless of their ability to pay. And I want everyone to have meaningful access to primary care, and Medicaid provides that. We’re certainly not going to touch seniors, we’re not going to touch people with disabilities – again, we want to impact those who need it the most.

“On the other hand, we have 7 million healthy American men of working age who aren’t working. Let’s help those people find a job [and] help them get off Medicaid. Let’s help them either get on the ACA exchange or maybe health insurance through their employer. That’s a win-win opportunity. The best safety net out there is a job, so I’m trying to look for that. You can’t look at this in silos, but I think that would be my goal, is to help those people that are on Medicaid, that are on food stamps right now, that are working age, they’re healthy. Let’s help them find a job as well.”

“…I think the big problem with Medicaid right now, though, is that we’ve increased spending 50% in five years. So, we need to figure out how do we slow down that spending. In many states, they figured out ways to game the system so that we are reimbursing hospitals more for Medicaid patients than Medicare. So, we need to go back and look at this provider tax and make it fair at the same time.”

On the struggles that rural hospitals are facing:

“No one knows more about rural hospitals up here in the Capitol than I do – I’m the only person who’s actually run a hospital, and a rural hospital at that. And there are efficiencies that many are not doing. But at the end of the day, we have something called a critical access hospital, which functions on a system of Medicare Plus, so those would not be touched with this situation as well.

“I would make nursing homes immune from this provider tax cut as well. That’s such a small amount of money to keep those rural hospitals going. There are other ways to do that, and certainly there are other systems, there’s other funding, other mechanisms that they get because they are rural as well. Things are changing in rural America every day. We’d love to come back and talk about what the rural hospital of the future looks like. It’s probably a really good emergency room with good outpatient services, and go from there.”

On how the Senate’s negotiations with the House to move the One Big Beautiful Bill forward:

“Everyone is negotiating through the press right now, and everything is negotiable. Look, we’re going to get the no tax on tips, overtime wage, and social security across the finish line in some shape or shape or form.

“…On the SALT tax, my goodness – why should red states be subsidizing blue states to the tune of about $400 billion over the next 10 years? I think there’s a sweet spot for us to land on, and we may very well do a bill, send it to them, and they may reject it and send us a bill back. You know, we’re not going home, though, until we get something to the President’s desk. But this is what’s going on – these are powerful negotiations. I’ve never seen such intense negotiations going on within the Republican caucus right now. There are hundreds of billions of dollars at stake. The future of this country is at stake.”

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