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The budget resolution recently passed by the U.S. House calls for cutting $2 trillion in government spending to extend tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration, including $880 billion from the committee funding Medicaid health coverage.

Polly Anderson, vice president of strategy and financing for the Colorado Community Health Network, said cuts to Medicaid would have immediate catastrophic effects for community health centers that treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

"Currently about 50 percent of patients are on Medicaid," Anderson pointed out. "It is the single largest payer for health centers in the state. And so very essential to keep providers working, to keep patients flowing through the health centers, and to keep the lights on."

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Seven in 10 Trump voters say cutting Medicaid is unacceptable, according to a recent survey and Republicans noted the budget resolution does not include the word Medicaid a single time. But according to a nonpartisan watchdog group, it would be virtually impossible for the Energy and Commerce Committee to meet its $880 billion without cutting Medicaid or Medicare.

Extending tax cuts passed in 2017 would put two-thirds of the benefits into the pockets of the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Cuts to Medicaid could also come in the form of work requirements, which Anderson noted may sound like a good way to ensure the program serves people in need.

"But it's important to know that an estimated 93 percent of patients on Medicaid who can work, already do," Anderson emphasized. "Work requirements are really just a way to make it more complicated for people to access the benefits. They get caught up in some red tape and lose coverage."

The recent Medicaid unwinding process, when even Coloradans who qualified for the program lost their health insurance, paints a stark picture of what broad cuts to Medicaid would look like. Anderson added community health centers have continued to provide care, they just do not get reimbursed for those costs.

"About 39,000 individuals lost their Medicaid coverage, and remain uninsured today," Anderson reported. "The costs associated with caring for those 39,000 people? About $55 million."