ICYMI: Chairman Harris Publishes Op-Ed With Congressmen Chip Roy and Eric Burlison On The Need For Medicaid Reform

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Andy Harris, M.D., Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration, penned an op-ed with Congressmen Chip Roy (TX-21) and Eric Burlison (MO-07) on the need for Medicaid reform. 

Excerpts from the column are below. The full piece is available HERE.

“In 10 years, the United States is on course to add $20 trillion to the national debt, setting the total sum owed by American taxpayers at over $56 trillion. Every year we spend in the red, interest on the debt continues to accumulate, until by 2051, when interest alone will be the largest line item in the federal budget. Put simply, we are on a collision course with a total financial crisis, and Congress may only have a handful of chances left to turn back. To prevent a total collapse of the U.S. dollar and give the American people the opportunities they deserve, lawmakers must reform Medicaid. To do anything less borders on malfeasance. 

In the last five years, federal Medicaid spending has skyrocketed from $409 billion in 2019 to $618 billion in 2024, a 51% increase. Despite being 60 years old, a third of Medicaid’s growth has occurred in those same five years. And in the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office projects that Medicaid will cost more than $1 trillion annually, rivaling the size of Saudi Arabia’s current economy. 

Medicaid was never meant to be this expansive. 

Medicaid was meant to be a temporary bridge, not a final destination. You want to help your constituents? Give them the proper incentive structure to grow and thrive. Put them on the path to financial stability. We have a duty to safeguard taxpayers and ensure that Medicaid does not bankrupt us. 

We need to bring the rhetoric back into reality. Medicaid reforms are not the end of entitlement programs. They are a necessary step toward real solutions to address our nation’s debt crisis and secure the financial future of generations to come. By making targeted reforms, lawmakers can execute President Trump’s mandate for change. 

A deal to help save the country is on the table. Take it.”
For media inquiries, please contact Anna Adamian at Anna.A@mail.house.gov