Congress Considers Cuts to Medicaid: What to Know and How to Advocate for Funding
Did you know? Congress is currently considering making cuts to federal funding for Medicaid. This would mean fewer dollars to fund I/DD services, which include brokerage support services like the ones offered by Community Pathways. This includes services from your Personal Agent, and direct service workers like personal support workers (PSW) and direct support professionals (DSP). Because of these potential funding cuts, our current goal at Community Pathways is to ensure that as many people as possible understand what Medicaid is, what it pays for, and what these funding cuts would mean for the people with disabilities that we serve and their families. We are also sharing information and resources to help individuals and their support networks to advocate for Medicaid at the federal and state level.
What to know about Medicaid
Medicaid is:
The Oregon Health Plan (OHP), Oregon’s Medicaid program. This includes coverage for doctors’ visits, hospital care, mental health services, dental, and some vision care.
Brokerage support services. This includes funding for case management services and personal support workers and direct support professionals.
A wide range of healthcare services for *low-income individuals, including preventative care, hospital stays, behavioral health services and more.
*According to federal guidelines, “low-income” is defined as $15,650 annually for one person and $26,650 annually for a family of three in 2025.
Medicaid cuts would have a significant impact on people with disabilities in Oregon. They would potentially lead to decreased access to essential healthcare and long-term care services, financial strain for the people who need these serves, and a decreased ability for them to live independently in the community.
What you can do to support Medicaid
To learn more about what is currently happening at the federal level and what you can do to support Medicaid, take a look at the Federal Funding Fallout April 2025 report. This 48-page presentation shares how the actions being taken by the U.S. Executive Branch and Congress are impacting or will impact programs like Medicaid that are important to people with disabilities and older adults and their families.
This presentation aims to educate people about the reconciliation bill process and rescission bill how passing these bills will negatively affect people, businesses, and states, as well as provide actions people with disabilities and their support networks can take to help stop Medicaid cuts.
Here are 5 actions you can take to support Medicaid:
Contact members of Congress, both U.S. Senators and your Congressional Representative. Tell them about your experience as a person with a disability and the impact cuts to Medicaid would have on your life. Find your members of congress.
Contact your State Senator and State Representative about the state budget. This can include calling, emailing, sending a letter, or making appointments to visit legislators in person. Find your Oregon legislators.
Record a short personal story about Medicaid and why it matters to you and share it on social media, using the hashtag #IAmMedicaid
Attend state budget hearings. Find upcoming budget hearings on the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) website.
Submit public comment for hearings if you can’t attend them in person. Learn how to submit written testimony online.
How to advocate for Medicaid
Use the following two resources to share your story about Medicaid and why it’s important to I/DD services with Oregon legislators and Oregon Developmental Disability Services (ODDS).
Send a message to Oregon legislators to “Say No to Medicaid Cuts”
Because Congress is considering making cuts to Medicaid, it is extremely important to advocate for Medicaid funding will all federal and state legislators.
Oregon Resource Association (ORA) has set up an Action Center to help all Oregonians to easily send a “Say No to Medicaid Cuts” message to Oregon’s Republican representative Cliff Bentz. Use the message form to quickly send a pre-filled message and/or add your own story about why cuts to Medicaid benefits matters to you.
The goal of this campaign is to persuade Rep. Bentz to join his *Republican colleagues in publicly opposing any cuts to Medicaid benefits to protect vulnerable Oregonians.
* This campaign is focused on sending messages to Republican legislators because they are in the majority in the Federal Congress where these decisions are being made.
Participate in a National Core Indicator (NCI) Interview about your DD Services
Learn how to share feedback with Oregon’s Developmental Disability Services (ODDS). Watch the National Core Indicator (NCI) Interview YouTube video to learn what steps individuals can take to share about what matters most to them about their DD services. Participants have to be at least 18 years old and receive at least one state DD service and case management services in Oregon.
The information from interviews is used by ODDS to learn what is going well with DD services and what services might need to be improved. ODDS also uses feedback to track progress overtime. The name of each person interviewed is removed from any final reports so that no one will know how they answered the interview questions.
Participating in an NCI interview is one ways you can tell OHSU and ODDS what matters to you and the people who support you!
Learn more about how to do an NCI interview by visiting:
The NCI interview is a partnership between OHSU and ODDS.
Medicaid data
Briefing on Medicaid Defense Messaging, CAG/DFP, published by Tableau Public
This briefing provides information on how the public sees cuts to Medicaid in the context of lawmakers in Congress considering funding levels for Medicaid.
Includes a chart to show what percentage of all voters—across parties and demographics—think federal funding should be increased, kept at its current level, or cut. The data shows that 50% of “All Likely Voters” polled support increasing federal funding while only 8% support cuts to funding.
You can use this data to inform your talking points when speaking with legislators.
Of “All Likely Voters” across parties, gender, age, education levels, race/ethnicity, and disability that were involved in this study:
50% say federal funding for Medicaid should be increased
66% of Democrats agree
45% of Independents/Third Party agree
37% of Republicans agree
38% say federal funding for Medicaid should be kept at current levels
8% say federal funding for Medicaid should be cut
5% say they don’t know
Health of Oregon Adults with Disabilities – Medicaid Data and Disparities
OHSU’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) works to describe who uses Medicaid and any health disparities between IDD and non-IDD populations in Oregon. Specifically, they examined differences in six health domains: mental health, hospital visits, oral health, substance use, diabetes care, and cancer screening.
The data dashboard (“2022 Oregon Medicaid Service Use: Comparing IDD and Non-IDD Populations”) shows that the number of 30-day all-cause re-admissions was much higher for Medicaid members with IDD compared with members without IDD in Oregon for the year 2022.
Of re-admissions for “all causes” (e.g., dental care, emergency hospital use) over a 30-day period,
556 were for members with IDD
200 were for members without IDD
Learn more
Visit the Medicaid page on CPI’s website to find more information and resources. You can also contact your personal agent (PA) about Medicaid.