Impacts of House Energy and Commerce Committee Spending Plan

By Camila Gomez, Policy & Planning Manager

On Sunday, May 11^th, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a preliminary version of their major tax bill, which includes plans for reducing Medicaid spending by approximately $880 billion over the next 10 years. While there are many proposals included in the legislation, we are deeply alarmed by the potential impact these cuts, and other requirements that place an unnecessary burden on eligible Medicaid recipients, will have on medically tailored meals (MTMs) and the clients we serve.

More than 80 million people in the United States rely on Medicaid for quality health coverage, including children, seniors, veterans, people living with disabilities or chronic conditions, and working adults. While Medicaid is a critical source of care for so many, it has also been the primary driver of innovation and access for nutrition-based services like MTMs. In New York, we are expanding our service capacity through the Medicaid 1115 Waiver, which allows us to provide medically tailored home-delivered meals as part of a covered benefit under this special pilot demonstration project.

At God’s Love We Deliver, we have seen how medically tailored meals save lives and reduce costs. These meals are designed by Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and specifically designed to help people manage severe illnesses, recover from hospitalization, and avoid health crises that can lead to costly emergency care in the future.

Yet because MTMs are not a mandatory Medicaid benefit, they are among the first services that states will be forced to scale back or eliminate in the face of funding cuts. That would be a devastating setback for our clients and for all those who require services improving health-related social needs.

A recent study published in Health Affairs confirms that expanding MTMs to eligible Medicaid enrollees could prevent 3.5 million hospitalizations and save $32.1 billion annually. In New York, if all eligible adults were provided MTMs over 8 months, it is estimated that this would result in health care savings of $3,500 per person annually. These findings affirm what we witness every day: nutrition is health care, and access to medically tailored meals keeps people out of the hospital and in their homes, improving their quality of life.

Cuts to Medicaid would not only threaten the health of our clients, but they would undercut a growing movement toward efficient, more compassionate, and cost-effective healthcare. In addition, imposing burdensome requirements that will shut out many individuals from receiving the healthcare that they so urgently need may cause life-altering consequences. We urge Congress to protect Medicaid and to continue supporting policies that prioritize nutrition as essential to health. At God’s Love We Deliver, we remain committed to championing policies that allow us to continue providing our clients with the life-sustaining meals they need and deserve.

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