House Republicans seem to be reducing some, but not all, of the big cuts they wanted to make to the Medicaid program in their large tax bill. They are facing opposition from more moderate Republican lawmakers who don't want to end the mostly free healthcare for the people they represent.

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday estimated that millions of Americans could lose their Medicaid health coverage. This is because Republicans are suggesting different plans to save money. House Republicans are trying to find $1.5 trillion in cuts from government programs like health and food stamps. This is to make up for the money the government will lose from about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

"According to the CBO report, each of those alternatives would lead to a decline in Medicaid enrollment and a rise in the number of uninsured individuals."

The results caused new questions about whether House Speaker Mike Johnson can get the bill passed that President Donald Trump calls his "big, beautiful bill" before the Memorial Day deadline he set for himself.

Lawmakers are becoming more worried, especially with growing economic concerns about Trump’s policies. This includes the trade war, which could lead to higher prices, empty shelves, and job losses across the country. A main part of the plan is the Republican goal of continuing tax cuts that started in 2017 and will end this year. But they want to cut spending in other areas to help pay for these tax cuts and slow down the increase in the country's debt and deficits.

Throughout the week, Johnson has been meeting privately in the Speaker's office at the Capitol with Republican groups, particularly centrist GOP legislators representing highly competitive constituencies, who are cautioning against drastic spending cuts that would significantly impact their districts.

Democrats, having commissioned the CBO report, seized upon the findings.

According to a non-partisan analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed Medicaid policies by Republicans would lead to millions of individuals losing their health insurance, a conclusion that aligns with previous assertions, stated Rep. Frank Pallone, who requested the assessment alongside Sen. Ron Wyden.

Emerging from a late Tuesday evening meeting, House Republican legislators suggested that Johnson and the GOP leadership were abandoning several of the most contested alterations to the federal Medicaid matching fund rates allocated to states.

Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from New Jersey, declared that those alterations to Medicaid "have been discontinued."

Republican Representative Nick LaLota of New York, recalled that Trump himself has stated he would resist reductions to Medicaid, suggesting instead that the increasing agreement among Republicans is to target Medicaid cuts at different elements.

In addition to other proposals, LaLota mentioned suggestions such as implementing work obligations for Medicaid beneficiaries, mandating recipients reconfirm their eligibility biannually rather than annually, and guaranteeing that no immigrants residing in the U.S. unlawfully receive assistance.

But the more conservative Republicans, like those in the House Freedom Caucus, are pushing for bigger spending cuts because they want to stop the deficits from growing too much due to the tax breaks.

Medicaid operates as a collaborative scheme administered by individual states in conjunction with the federal government, providing coverage for a total of 71 million adults.

Republicans are contemplating a range of measures to decrease federal expenditure on the program, such as lowering the proportion of healthcare costs borne by the federal government for enrollees, which can be as high as 90% in certain instances.

They are also deliberating and imposing a limit on federal government expenditure per Medicaid recipient, although this proposition seems to be garnering diminishing backing from legislators.

The CBO reported that although these modifications would yield billions in cost reductions, they would also lead to approximately 10 million individuals losing their Medicaid coverage.

They seem to have been definitively excluded from consideration.

Nonetheless, Republicans are still considering other proposed Medicaid modifications, such as establishing new limitations on a state's taxation of healthcare providers, which yields greater federal funding. This measure could generate billions in savings but might also lead to approximately 8 million people losing healthcare coverage, according to the report.