For Immediate Release
For more information: Madeline Graf: mgraf@mlri.org  | (857) 241-1745 

House Republicans Vote to Strip Basic Healthcare and Food Benefits From Millions of Massachusetts Residents

Dumping federal costs onto Massachusetts and slashing eligibility for very low-income residents will increase hunger, worsen health, and deepen poverty.

BOSTON, MA (May 23, 2025) – Early yesterday morning, Republicans in Congress voted to pass the largest cuts to food assistance and healthcare in history – all to pay for tax cuts for wealthy corporations and billionaires. 

One in six Massachusetts residents receive SNAP benefits to buy groceries and help put food on the table. One in three state residents – including nearly half of all children and people with disabilities – rely on Medicaid (MassHealth) for health coverage. If this bill becomes law, millions of Massachusetts residents with low incomes will face significant cuts to food benefits and lose access to health care.

The bill would shift an unprecedented level of costs from the federal government to Massachusetts. 

For SNAP, for the first time in the half century of the program, the House bill unloads significant federal costs onto states. Massachusetts would immediately need to provide an additional $53 million per year to administer SNAP – and up to about $660 million dollars a year to cover a percentage of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027. 

For Medicaid, this bill would undermine MassHealth by making it harder for people to obtain and keep coverage, by cutting federal revenue, and by increasing administrative costs while decreasing Massachusetts’ ability to raise enough money to pay for MassHealth. It would shift money away from health care into administrative red tape. 

Because Massachusetts must balance its budget, this major increase in state costs would force the state to cut funding for other priorities to fund SNAP and MassHealth, further shrink already tight eligibility rules, and/or undermine efforts to close participation gaps.

This bill would have a devastating impact on Massachusetts’ economy. 

MassHealth is the largest source of federal revenue in Massachusetts. This bill would destabilize our health care delivery system by yanking patient revenue away from hospitals, Community Health Centers, nursing homes, and other health care providers.  

SNAP brings $2.6 billion federal nutrition dollars annually to the Commonwealth. Cutting SNAP will harm 5,500 MA retailers and farmers. And, shifting federal costs to states would end SNAP’s role as an economic stabilizer during recessions by perversely increasing state costs during downturns – crippling one of the best tools we have to support local economies. 

This bill would cut off health care and food assistance for families across the Commonwealth.

Much of the loss of benefits will result from ineffective, burdensome, and costly work requirements designed to kick eligible people off. And, decades of evidence show work requirements don’t increase employment; cutting people off SNAP or Medicaid takes food off the table and makes people sicker so it is harder for them to find and keep work.

For MassHealth, the bill creates the first nationwide work requirement to get healthcare. To get MassHealth, 19-64 year olds would have to prove at application and at least every 6 months that they work at least 80 hours a month, or that they meet an exception. This deeply misguided and harmful change is estimated to put between 225,000 and 350,000 MassHealth members at risk of losing their MassHealth. This bill would create even more red tape and put more people at risk of losing coverage by requiring people 19-64 to renew at least every 6 months. 

For SNAP, the bill vastly expands the existing harsh and ineffective 3-month time limit to include parents of young children and older adults, and forces Massachusetts to apply the time limit even in areas with very high unemployment. It would put about 230,000 residents at risk of losing some or all of their food benefits. 

Finally, Republicans in Congress have cruelly ended access to SNAP and health programs for many legally present immigrants. The bill ends SNAP eligibility for all legally present immigrants – including children – who do not have a green card. Refugees, asylees, and others who fled persecution will no longer qualify. The House also limits eligibility for premium tax credits in the Health Connector and in Medicare mostly to green card holders – these health care benefits have always been available to work-authorized immigrants like people with Temporary Protected State, victims of crime, and people who fled persecution. 

Also, the bill reduces federal matching funds to states like Massachusetts that provide health care coverage for certain immigrants with state-only funds, punishing the states for making a prudent choice with their own funds. This would result in a loss of $350 million federal dollars per year in MA.

In addition to barring immigrants from SNAP and MassHealth, the bill would place the humanitarian relief that provides lawful status out of reach. The bill would impose draconian fees on asylum applicants and others seeking humanitarian relief and employment authorization. Since there would no longer be a fee waiver, only higher income immigrants would be able to access humanitarian protections – adding to the catastrophic human costs of this bill, all in the pursuit of tax cuts for the wealthy. 

“The bill passed by the House sends a message to Massachusetts residents and all who are struggling that Congress cares more about the wealthy and the powerful than it does about families and individuals struggling to put food on the table or pay for health care,” says Georgia Katsoulomitis, MLRI’s Executive Director. “The Senate must reject cuts to basic needs programs, and instead work towards an economy that works for those with the lowest incomes – not just the richest.”

MLRI is grateful to our entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation for steadfastly opposing cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. As this bill moves to the Senate, we thank Senator Warren and Senator Markey for their leadership, and we urge the Senate to reject cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. 

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About Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI)
Founded in 1968, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) is a nonprofit poverty law and policy program that provides statewide advocacy and leadership in advancing laws, policies, and practices that secure economic, racial, and social justice for low-income people and communities. To learn more, visit MLRI.org.