House Republicans seem to be reducing some, but not all, of the big cuts to the Medicaid program in their large tax bill. They are facing opposition from more moderate Republican politicians who do not want to stop providing almost free healthcare for the people they represent.

A new report says millions of Americans might lose their health coverage called Medicaid. This is because Republicans in the House of Representatives want to cut government spending on health, food, and other programs by up to $1.5 trillion. They are doing this to make up for about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

The CBO report indicated that pursuing any of those alternatives would lead to a reduction in Medicaid enrolment and a rise in the number of individuals lacking health insurance.

The results caused new doubts about whether House Speaker Mike Johnson can pass what President Donald Trump calls his "big, beautiful bill" by the Memorial Day deadline he set for himself.

Lawmakers are becoming more worried, especially as people are more concerned about the economy because of Trump’s policies. This includes the trade war, which could lead to higher prices, empty shelves, and people losing their jobs across the country. A main part of the plan is the Republican goal to keep the tax cuts that started in 2017 and will end later this year. But they want to cut spending on other programs to help pay for them and stop the country's debt and deficits from getting bigger.

All week, Johnson has been meeting privately in the speaker's office at the Capitol with different groups of Republicans. This includes the more moderate Republican lawmakers from areas with the most competition, who are warning that big spending cuts would really hurt their districts.

Democrats, who had commissioned the CBO report, seized upon the findings.

This neutral report from the Congressional Budget Office shows what we have been saying: the Republican ideas for Medicaid mean millions of people will lose their health care, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who asked for the report with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Late Tuesday evening, Republican House lawmakers leaving a meeting suggested that Johnson and the GOP leadership were abandoning some of the most contentious modifications to the federal Medicaid matching fund rates allocated to the states.

Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from New Jersey, stated that the proposed alterations to Medicaid "are defunct."

Republican Representative Nick LaLota of New York noted that despite Trump's stated opposition to Medicaid cuts, a growing consensus within Republican circles now favors concentrating these reductions on alternative provisions.

Among the other proposals, LaLota mentioned, are implementing work obligations for Medicaid beneficiaries, necessitating recipients to confirm their eligibility bi-annually rather than annually, and ensuring no undocumented immigrants are receiving assistance.

However, more conservative Republicans, notably those in the House Freedom Caucus, are demanding more substantial spending reductions in their effort to curb escalating deficits resulting from the tax cuts.

Administered collaboratively by state and federal authorities, Medicaid provides coverage to 71 million adults.

Republicans are exploring a range of possibilities to decrease federal expenditure on the program, such as diminishing the proportion the federal government contributes to enrollees' healthcare costs, which can be as high as 90% in certain instances.

Additionally, a spending limit per Medicaid recipient is being evaluated by the federal government, though this proposal seems to be garnering diminishing backing from legislators.

These modifications, while generating billions in cost reductions, would also lead to approximately 10 million individuals being stripped of their Medicaid coverage, according to the CBO.

They appear to be out of consideration.

However, Republicans are still considering other proposed alterations to Medicaid, such as implementing new constraints on state taxes imposed on healthcare providers, which currently lead to increased federal funding. This measure could yield substantial savings amounting to billions, yet, according to the report, it might also result in approximately 8 million individuals losing their healthcare coverage.