Save Medicaid and Clean Air Programs from Budget Cuts
The American Lung Association is advocating for Congress to preserve lifesaving federal funding for Medicaid and air quality programs as it goes through a process called budget reconciliation.The American Lung Association’s mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. This includes ensuring that everyone has access to quality and affordable healthcare coverage and clean air to breathe.
These goals, and the advancements that have been made over the past five years, are now at risk. Congress is using a process called budget reconciliation to consider dangerous cuts. They’re currently working to reconcile two proposed plans, including a House resolution calling for $880 billion in federal spending cuts that would devastate Medicaid and healthy air programs, and then will begin the process of drafting bills to meet those plans.
We need your help: Tell your members of Congress to oppose cuts to Medicaid and clean air in the budget resolution and urge them to protect lung health and reject any effort to halt, cut or freeze these critical programs.
In Congress, the reconciliation process allows for the quick advancement of high-priority legislation that directly impacts the federal government. Using this process requires just 51 Senate votes to pass, and the bill must stick to specifying limits on spending, revenue (including taxes) and debt for a period of time, essentially providing a budget roadmap.
During this process, the Lung Association is vigorously advocating for Congress to maintain current federal funding levels to protect Medicaid and air quality programs. The House and Senate have each put together their own budget plans. Both would likely cut programs that matter for lung health and should not move forward, but the House version is particularly concerning, as it calls for slashing spending to levels that would necessitate draconian cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to vulnerable children, pregnant women, low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities. We also know members of Congress in both the House and Senate have called to use this process to end some clean air programs.
The proposed funding cuts would have broad and devastating consequences for the tens of millions of children and adults who rely on Medicaid, and its sister program the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), for check-ups, lifesaving treatments, screenings, vaccinations and long-term care. The budget bills also slash funding for clean air programs, created through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). These include programs to improve the air in schools so that kids, especially those with asthma, can breathe safely, and programs providing tax credits for energy efficient vehicles and home improvements.
Who relies on Medicaid?
Almost one in five people rely on Medicaid to access healthcare. Medicaid and CHIP provide healthcare coverage for approximately 80 million people, ensuring access to doctors’ visits, medications and necessary treatments to stay healthy. One in four individuals under 65 living with lung cancer rely on Medicaid, and nearly half of all children in the United States living with asthma are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP.
How would cuts impact healthcare?
Cuts to Medicaid and CHIP could result in:
- Kids not getting well-visit check-ups or seeing their doctor when they’re sick
- Seniors forced to leave long-term care
- Pregnant women losing access to prenatal services that ensure healthy pregnancies and babies
- People living with lung disease having to delay necessary healthcare and having severe asthma or COPD flare-ups that otherwise could have been prevented.
Medicaid cuts would also mean tens of millions of people would no longer have access to recommended vaccinations and preventive services such as cancer screenings and quit smoking treatments. Approximately one in four people with lung cancer rely on Medicaid for health coverage; more than half of all kids with asthma are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
What air quality programs are at risk?
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed into law lifesaving investments in reducing emissions that harm health. The Lung Association pushed hard to get these measures passed, including investments in renewable electricity that doesn’t pollute, tax credits for families to purchase electric vehicles and efficient appliances if they choose, and funding for community air monitoring. We also supported investments in electric school buses that were part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, another bill that was passed into law.
Funding cuts and tax changes could jeopardize key components of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), including:
- Air monitoring projects in 132 high-risk communities
- The Solar for All program, assisting more than 900,000 households to benefit from solar energy
- Programs to reduce air pollution in schools and in our nation’s port communities
- A program to transition to zero-emission school buses
- Consumer tax credits for energy-efficient purchases, including new and used electric vehicles and energy-efficient home improvements like windows, doors and energy audits
- Manufacturing tax credits to help increase energy availability with renewable, zero-emission sources.
Why these air quality programs matter
These programs reduce air pollution for everyone indoors and outdoors, helping to prevent asthma attacks and lifelong lung damage from pollution caused by vehicles, power plants and other emission sources.
And the health burden of air pollution is not evenly shared. Some people are more at risk of illness and death from air pollution than others, including people with lung and other underlying health conditions, older adults, children, people of color, individuals and families living in low-income communities, and individuals who are pregnant and fetuses.
Page last updated: March 18, 2025
