Medicaid cuts could be dangerous for cancer survivors

Earlier in 2025, the Trump administration approved $900 billion in sweeping cuts to Medicaid, the publicly funded health program for low-income families and people with disabilities. Democrats are now demanding that Republicans address some of their concerns about patients who rely on safety-net health care programs, which has led to a deadlock in Washington over a federal spending plan and the ongoing government shutdown.

The law requires people to provide monthly proof of employment and renew their plan every six months. It is expected to leave millions uninsured in the coming years, including 300,000 in Pennsylvania and 350,000 in New Jersey.

The pending Medicaid cuts could have particularly dangerous and costly implications for cancer care, researchers and advocacy groups warn. People who rely on Medicaid to pay for cancer treatment and ongoing monitoring are less likely to be able to meet the work requirements needed to keep their plan because of their poor health.

Losing coverage may also mean fewer people get routine screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, which are key to identifying breast and colon cancer early, when it is easier and less costly to treat. This could mean more cancers diagnosed at later stages, at greater financial cost to patients and taxpayers, who foot a portion of the bill for Medicaid.

“When cancer is detected later, it has an effect on our whole system,” said Ann Nguyen, an associate research professor and scientist at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. “It’s going to be an increasingly difficult environment to navigate.”

Targeted for Medicaid cuts

Their primary target is lower-income, working adults who gained access to Medicaid through the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The so-called Obamacare law allowed states to expand access that had previously been restricted to families with children, pregnant people, and individuals with disabilities.

Just under 2 million New Jersey residents are covered by Medicaid, and about 680,000 are eligible because of expansion rules, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In Pennsylvania, about 750,000 of the 3 million people covered by Medicaid fall within the expansion group, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

People who qualify under Medicaid expansion have incomes below 138% of the federal poverty rate—an annual income of about $21,500 for an individual. Previously, many earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but were largely in jobs that did not offer health insurance, leaving them uninsured.

Nguyen and her colleagues at Rutgers say cutting Medicaid will mean more people are once again without health insurance to cover the routine screenings that help detect cancer early.

States that expanded Medicaid access saw more than 2,500 early cancer diagnoses within the first five years of the new law, saving millions in taxpayer spending, according to the American Cancer Society. Early diagnosis is critical because late-stage cancers can cost up to seven times more to treat, according to the national nonprofit.

Late-stage treatment can be especially hard on patients because they are less likely to have jobs with paid leave benefits. Taking time off for cancer treatment could mean going without pay or losing their job, Nguyen said.

In Washington, Democrats have pointed to patients who rely on safety-net health care programs to afford ongoing care, in their opposition to the Medicaid cuts.

Their demands in the current budget impasse are centered on extending tax credits, due to expire at the end of the year, that help many working adults afford Obamacare health plans. Republicans have blamed the government shutdown on Democrats’ unwillingness to budge on health care demands.

2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.