Skip to content

Thursday, Jun 11, 2026

Did Donald Trump’s signature 2025 legislation cut Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over a decade?

Laura Schulte / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Watch

yes

Federal legislation known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” included an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending over the next decade. 

Passed in 2025, the bill included tax cuts and increased spending on immigration enforcement and the military, offset by nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office

Provisions included mandating able-bodied adults to work 80 hours per month to qualify for Medicaid benefits, known as BadgerCare in Wisconsin. That’s estimated to reduce spending by $326 billion through reduced enrollment

It also freezes provider taxes in states like Wisconsin that have not expanded Medicaid, and it gradually lowers the provider tax rates in expansion states from 6% to 3.5%, saving the federal government $226 billion. States have used taxes on providers such as hospitals to draw federal matching funds.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

See all fact briefs

Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.

Learn More

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.