Across the country, state lawmakers like us are bracing as the federal government considers a bill that will throw state budgets into chaos and add red tape that our social service agencies do not have the capacity to administer. If the budget reconciliation bill that passes Congress in anything like its current form, we will be left to deal with the fallout.
The likely impacts from the “Big, Beautiful Bill” are particularly ugly for our home state, Alaska: Nearly 40,000 Alaskans could lose health care coverage, thousands of families will go hungry through loss of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the shift in costs from the federal government to the state will plunge our budget into a severe deficit, cripple our state economy and make it harder to provide basic services.
This is not about partisanship. One of us is a Republican and the other is an Independent. In the Alaska Legislature, our State Senate and House are led by a bipartisan governing coalition. Our focus is squarely on the survival of the people we represent.
The benefits of Medicaid and the SNAP program permeate the entire fabric of the Alaska economy, with one in three Alaskans receiving Medicaid, including more than half of the children. In remote Arctic communities, Medicaid dollars make medical travel possible for residents from the hundreds of roadless villages to the communities where they are able to receive proper medical treatments.
SNAP, which supports 70,000 residents, puts food on the table and is also used to help purchase subsistence gear for essential hunting and fishing. And at a time when many fish runs are collapsing because of climate change and our overburdened agencies are already struggling to get residents their SNAP benefits on time, cutting federal funding for SNAP will have a profound impact here.
The bill being rushed through Congress is based on a one-size-fits-all approach that does not reflect these realities on the ground. Unlike the federal government, most states cannot run a deficit and must balance their budget. If the federal government shifts costs to the states, it generally means we need to cut something else. And while the impacts are particularly difficult for Alaska, our state is not alone. Last year, inflation-adjusted tax revenue fell in 40 states. States with large rural populations are likely to be hit particularly hard.
In order to make up for this cost-shifting legislation, Alaska would need to find in its already stressed budget hundreds of millions of dollars for Medicaid and tens of millions for SNAP. Such cuts could not come at a worse time. We’re already struggling to stabilize our budget amid sharply lower oil revenue and a decade of out-migration. If this bill passes, it will mean less money for road maintenance and snow clearing, larger K-12 class sizes, school closings and defunding of state public safety agencies.
Alaska cannot afford to lose health care funding. Our state is near the top of the list for the highest rates of suicide, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted infections in the nation. It is also severely lacking in adequate behavioral health services. The cuts will only make these problems worse.
Work requirements instituted in Medicaid are untenable for rural Alaska, with many communities facing limited broadband access and job opportunities. Alaskans who lose health care coverage will be forced to delay care until it’s an emergency. In desperation, they will end up in emergency rooms, the most expensive place to receive care, resulting in higher premiums for private sector employers and unworkable finances that will most likely force rural hospitals to close. The reality is that most Alaskans on Medicaid are already working, and these provisions just create more barriers and bureaucracy.
Our U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, has clearly articulated the harm these policies will cause. As Alaskans and Americans, we are all praying that she is successful in building a coalition to protect Medicaid and SNAP from these onerous cuts.
We fear that if this bill passes, a village in rural Alaska might lose its one-and-only grocery store because of a drastic decline in SNAP dollars. It might also lose its sole health care clinic or hospital because it cannot sustain its services with decreased Medicaid reimbursements. The reconciliation bill does not take into account the uniqueness of Alaskan lifestyles and geographic remoteness.
Outside of SNAP and Medicaid, we worry about the end of tax credits that helped many workers afford health care through the Affordable Care Act. Eliminating these credits will mean that some families will see their premiums increase by thousands of dollars per month, or be forced to go without health insurance.
To keep up with rising energy costs, our Arctic communities have also relied on innovative renewables to cut costs and reduce dependence on imported diesel fuel for over two decades. Unfortunately, the reconciliation bill ends tax credits for wind and solar, which will drive up the utility bills and make it nearly impossible for Alaskans to achieve independence from foreign energy.
What is the end game here? How does it help anyone to terminate health care coverage for our most vulnerable through red tape or take away food for families who have limited-to-no options for gainful employment?
As long-serving members of the Alaska House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate, we’ve faced many daunting economic and fiscal challenges, but we’ve never seen federal policy whose impacts are so far-reaching and damaging as what is before us now. Alaska is one of the most amazing places in our country and Congress is risking our way of life to give money to the rich.
Bryce Edgmon, an Independent, is speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives and lives in Dillingham. Cathy Giessel, a Republican, is the majority leader for the Alaska Senate Bipartisan Coalition and lives in Anchorage.
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