(The Center Square) – House Republican budget lead Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, is firing back at Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and Democratic budget writers blaming the Trump administration for deep cuts in Medicaid funding that jeopardize coverage for thousands of Washingtonians.
“According to the nonpartisan Office of Program Research (OPR), the budget passed by Democrats and signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in 2025 slashes over $782 million from Medicaid – $446 million in federal funds and $336.5 million in state matching dollars,” wrote Couture in a Monday news release.
The lawmaker said it took four months to get the breakdown on state Medicaid cuts from OPR, noting he was shocked to see how deep the Ferguson-approved cuts ultimately went.
“We knew there [were] Medicaid cuts in the budget, but it wasn’t fully quantified until just last Friday. My early guesses and estimates were probably around the $200 million over four years range for Medicaid cuts in our state,” Couture said in a Monday interview with The Center Square. “It’s over three times worse than I thought it would be.”
Ferguson, in a July 3 press release, blasted the federal cuts: “At least 250,000 Washingtonians will lose Medicaid coverage. In addition, as many as 150,000 Washingtonians will be priced out of the state’s health care exchange.”
Couture said the immediate cuts have nothing to do with federal cuts to Medicaid, which don’t kick in until 2027 and 2028, but will impact some of the most vulnerable populations.
“These Medicaid cuts affect low-income and elderly people and people with disabilities very disproportionately,” he explained. “It affected general medical services. It affected long-term care and aging. Meanwhile, they’re sitting there blaming and pointing the finger at the federal government, saying, ‘It’s unconscionable, it’s immoral,’ while they were trying to hide from people and hoping they wouldn’t notice that they were systematically gutting health care for vulnerable populations that actually need this stuff the most.”
Couture also noted the Medicaid cuts will hurt Washington hospitals that are already deep in the red.
“Washington hospitals are $4 billion in the hole. Most of them run on negative margins, and now, because of state policies, we have this revolving door of difficult-to-discharge people. We don’t have enough beds. Our staff is overworked, and we just don’t have enough staff for the beds that we need,” he said. “I don’t know how under the Democrats’ plan and their policies and their budget how hospitals, critical rural critical access hospitals are supposed to survive.”
The Mason County Republican said what bothered him the most was how those Medicaid funding cuts were redirected in the budget.
“That’s the most nefarious thing of all. What did they do with the money that they cut from Medicaid? Well, predominantly, it went towards pay increases for bureaucrats and politicians in Olympia,” Couture said. “Would I rather cut Medicaid from vulnerable people with disabilities or elderly folks or low-income folks, or would I give myself a pay raise? I would choose not to cut Medicaid and not give myself a pay raise, but they chose the opposite.”
The Center Square asked the Governor’s Office for comment, but it provided nothing further before publication.
