Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani held a roundtable discussion Wednesday, one of the first times he has taken questions about his vote for Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, containing a widely criticized $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
After several media outlets publicized the Congressman’s reluctance to say whether press attendees would be given the opportunity to ask questions, Ciscomani said the roundtable was a way to combat what he calls the media’s misrepresentation of the Big Beautiful Bill.
He called claims that people with disabilities stand to lose coverage the “biggest pieces of misinformation out there,” and new work requirements and eligibility checks were passed to combat “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“This does not impact the population that needs it the most,” he said.
The version signed into law on July 4 directs states to check eligibility at least every six months, which according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis includes income checks, verifying addresses, and household updates. If the state can’t automatically verify these qualifications, the window to provide proof of status is 30 days before coverage is automatically terminated.
“Under the Biden administration, you just had to qualify on January 2, let's say, and you don't get verified again until the next year. Well, a lot of changes in that period of time. So now we added another verification point for that eligibility again. The main purpose of all this is to protect it and protect its solvency for the people that need it the most,” Ciscomani said.
Democrats and healthcare advocates say more frequent eligibility checks create more opportunities for mistakes or missed deadlines that could cause people to lose coverage.
Ciscomani said only people that do not need the program stand to lose coverage.
“You've got this 32 year old guy with no dependents, healthy and receiving Medicaid, that's actually what takes it away from the solvency of the program for those that need it,” he said.
The Southern Arizona Rep. also said new work requirements are reasonable.
“You're talking about 80 hours a month of either working, volunteering, looking for a job. The standard is pretty attainable if someone in that position wants to continue on that benefit,” Ciscomani said.
The Congressional Budget Office has projected new work requirements will cause the largest share of federal Medicaid savings, largely from coverage losses.
In the spring, Ciscomani co-signed a letter with the Congressional Hispanic Conference to Speaker Mike Johnson, saying cuts to Medicaid would have serious impacts in rural and Hispanic communities.
At the roundtable, he said the media has misrepresented the bill’s impact on rural hospitals, pointing to the $50 billion rural hospital fund in the final bill. However, analyses show that the fund would cover only about a third of the projected drop in Medicaid spending in rural areas.
But it’s unclear how much of the $50 billion Arizona’s rural hospitals would receive, an issue Ciscomani said has to be worked out with the Governor’s office.
“This money is going to flow to the states. That's what's going to happen. We have been a force at the table on this issue, and I am confident that we're going to be prioritized on that,” he said.
Nineteen invited representatives from Southern Arizona business and interest groups attended the 90-minute roundtable discussion, including the Arizona Tech Council, Arizona Builders Alliance, Southern Arizona Home Builders, the Arizona Farm Bureau, the Tucson Association of Realtors, and others.
The attendees largely praised provisions of the Big Beautiful Bill for its benefits to business.
Art del Cueto, representative for the National Border Patrol Council, said the spending package providing $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security is fixing resource issues Border Patrol faced under the Biden administration.
Carlos Ruiz, owner of HT Metals that supplies steel to defense and aerospace companies, raised the roundtable’s sole concern to Rep. Ciscomani, saying his business is facing unique challenges with tariffs on stainless steel.
Ruiz said there’s only one mill in the US that makes the stainless steel he needs. And, importing it from Italy, Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom as he’s done in the past, has gotten more expensive since Trump’s 50% steel tariff went into effect.
“The disruption has been in some customers saying, I only can use US made steel. And so when there's only one mill that makes that type of product, it makes it very difficult, because you have thousands of other businesses like myself all going to that one mill,”
“There's an adjustment period,” Ciscomani told Ruiz.
And, Ruiz said he is willing to wait, despite impatience from customers.
"It's just a matter of getting that lubrication in the engine of this, of this economy,” he said.
