FINDLAY, Ohio (WLIO) – Ohio U.S. Senator Jon Husted stopped in Findlay to speak with Blanchard Valley Hospital officials about their services as President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is now signed into law.
Husted said rural hospitals are struggling and added the Big Beautiful Bill set aside $50 billion to help these facilities. However, the bill also includes a little over $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years to federal healthcare benefits, especially Medicaid. Despite the projected cuts, Husted said Medicaid is expected to grow in Ohio but added there will be a crackdown to mitigate costs.
“In places like Ohio, you will receive a lot more money: 24% on average for the first year. We're going to make sure that people who are on the Medicaid system nationwide are truly eligible. We have many people, 2.8 million people, enrolled in multiple states- that's a cost that shouldn't be there. We have people who are, in some states, paying for non-citizens to receive Medicaid benefits- we're ending that. We're going to a better job of determining eligibility so that we can draw down the cost of the program to make sure the services that are available for people who truly need it and for able-bodied healthy adults without young children, who were receiving free healthcare, we're going to ask them to work 20 hours a week, work, volunteer, get an education in return for those benefits,” says Sen. Jon Husted, (R) Ohio's U.S. Senator.
In a report by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan group estimates President Trump’s bill will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion over 10 years. We asked Senator Husted his thoughts about that estimate.
“From the Congressional Budget Office, once the bill was enacted, they revised their estimates and said that it would reduce the deficit by $366 billion a year, and we had to prevent a $4 trillion tax increase on the American taxpayer… But believe me- that's not enough. We have more work to do,” adds Sen. Husted.
Husted added the national debt sits around $37 trillion.
