Josh Hawley's Medicaid Vote: He Called Cuts Wrong

Key facts

In May 2025 Hawley wrote in the New York Times: “We must ignore calls to cut Medicaid.”
On July 1, 2025 he voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill, which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts. It passed the Senate 51–50.
Two weeks later he introduced a bill to undo some of those cuts. It has not moved since.

Why Medicaid matters in Missouri

About 1.25 million Missourians rely on Medicaid and CHIP, and rural hospitals depend on it to keep the doors open. Hawley knew that. He said so himself, in public, more than once.

The timeline: from “morally wrong” to “yes”

May 2025Writes in the New York Times: "We must ignore calls to cut Medicaid." He calls benefit cuts "both morally wrong and politically suicidal."
June 28, 2025Warns that Republicans "cannot take away health care from working people."
July 1, 2025Votes for the "One Big Beautiful Bill," which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts. The Missouri Hospital Association warned that its provider-tax cap alone would cost the state hundreds of millions.
July 15, 2025Introduces a bill to undo some of the Medicaid cuts he had voted for two weeks earlier.

His excuse: a $50 billion side deal

His excuse is a $50 billion rural hospital fund he says he got in exchange. Translation: he knew exactly what the cuts would do to Missouri, took the deal anyway, then filed a bill to undo them so he could pretend he was on your side. If they were bad enough to repeal two weeks later, they were bad enough to vote no on.

His vote decided it

And his vote mattered: the bill passed 51–50, with the Vice President breaking the tie. Hawley could have stopped it. He didn’t.

The repeal bill that went nowhere

The bill he filed on July 15, 2025, S. 2279, the “Protect Medicaid and Rural Hospitals Act,” was referred to the Senate Finance Committee the same day. According to the official congressional record, that referral is still its latest action, and it lists no cosponsors. More on the stalled bill.

Hawley lives most of the year in a $1.7 million house in Virginia. The rural hospitals he voted to squeeze are here. His record on health care for sick veterans follows the same pattern.

Josh Hawley called Medicaid cuts “morally wrong,” then voted for them.