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.
We need your help: Tell your members of Congress to oppose cuts to Medicaid and clean air in the budget reconciliation process
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.
- In May, the House passed its budget reconciliation bill implementing these cuts. The bill includes more than one trillion dollars in healthcare cuts and billions of dollars in cuts to critical programs to keep the air clean. The cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act would result in more than 16 million people losing healthcare coverage and increase healthcare costs for everyone. The cuts to healthy air programs will increase air pollution, cause more asthma attacks in kids and result in families paying more for utilities. The Senate is working on this bill in June.
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 bill would 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?
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.
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. Unfortunately, many of these programs are now at risk of cuts.
What cuts are being considered?
- Repealing the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Climate Pollution Reduction Grants and many other investments that help communities clean up pollution, including repealing programs to reduce air pollution in schools.
- Dramatically delaying a program to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
- Repealing programs that help get more zero-emission trucks and buses on the road.
- Letting companies pay for expedited environmental reviews for new projects and limiting community rights to challenge them.
- Terminating tax credits that help people afford cleaner, less polluting vehicles, appliances and energy if they want.
- Attempting to repeal EPA standards for cleaner cars, which should not be permissible under the reconciliation process
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.
Page last updated: June 12, 2025
