Families across Louisiana are working hard to stay afloat — paying more for everything from groceries to rent to health care. President Trump’s One Big Ugly Budget Bill (OBBB) guts basic needs programs for low-income people — cutting $1 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace spending, along with $187 billion in SNAP — all in order to fund tax breaks to the wealthiest in our country. Consequently, 10 million people are expected to become uninsured, and 40 million SNAP recipients will be impacted. The OBBB cuts would shift costs to states that they cannot afford — forcing them to make difficult decisions about cutting benefits, limiting eligibility or taking from other programs.
14.8%of Louisianans face food insecurity
These budget cuts will have an outsized impact on Louisiana, which has some of the highest rates of poverty, child hunger and housing insecurity: 18.9% of the state is below the poverty level, 14.8% of the population faces food insecurity, and 32% of renter households are extremely low-income and risk eviction. Louisiana also relies on these federal funds to support its people. To illustrate, in FY22, Louisiana received $20.4 billion from the federal government, which is approximately 50.5% of the state’s total revenue.
OBBB takes food and nutrition away from families
Nearly 847,000 Louisianians receive food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, including about 584,000 families with children, over 313,000 families with older adults or disabled people, and 24,000 Louisiana veterans. The OBBB cuts will make it even harder for these communities to put food on the table.
584,000Families with children in Louisiana who receive food assistance through SNAP
This law raises the state’s portion of administration costs from 50% to 75%, adding an additional cost of $42 million annually. For the first time ever, states will be required to pay for SNAP benefits, starting in October 2027. Based on the 2023 error rate numbers, Louisiana would pay 5% of SNAP benefits, or approximately $95 million annually.
More SNAP recipients will be subject to cruel work reporting requirements, including older adults aged 55 to 65 and parents of children older than the age of 14. In Louisiana, over 28,000 older adults and 40,000 adults with children are at risk of losing some of their SNAP benefits due to the new requirements. If families lose SNAP, this will have a cascading impact on children, who will lose access to school meals, community eligibility for low-income schools, Summer EBT, and more. Louisiana families will also be affected by the freeze to the Thrifty Food Plan, which prevents regular updates of the benefits based on current grocery costs to provide for a family of four.
Louisiana’s economy will also take a hit from these changes, affecting small businesses, farmers and rural retailers. In 2019, the state authorized 4,266 SNAP retailers, which account for $1 billion in SNAP revenue. Every dollar in SNAP benefits generates $1.79 in economic activity.
OBBB strips away health care coverage
Louisiana ranks among the 10 worst states in the nation for health outcomes. Louisianians rely on Medicaid and CHIP to get lifesaving health care, reaching nearly 1.4 million individuals in the state — including individuals with low-incomes, families, pregnant women, older people, and people with disabilities. 36% of children and 64% of births in Louisiana are covered by Medicaid. Those who depend on Medicaid for survival are at risk of losing this lifeline because of the OBBB.
357,000Estimated number of Louisianians projected to lose health care coverage
An estimated 357,000 Louisianians are projected to lose health care coverage because of this law. For the first time, individuals needing Medicaid will be subject to work reporting requirements starting in 2027. These requirements do nothing to increase employment, instead, they are designed to simply take health care from recipients and force them into dead-end low paying jobs.
Additional people will wrongfully lose Medicaid because of the red tape from more frequent renewals that start in 2027. The law also ends Affordable Care Act subsidies that help people with low incomes access health coverage. It also caps provider taxes and state-directed payments, which states use to help pay for their portion of the Medicaid program.
When people do not have health coverage, they do not stop getting sick or needing the doctor. Instead, research finds they often delay care and become more likely to be hospitalized. An increase in uninsured people would be especially devastating to rural hospitals and community health centers because they would be left to shoulder the cost of care and possibly forced to close down, leaving many without any option for care. While there is a rural hospital fund, that is not enough to prevent the harm hospitals will face when large swaths of people lose insurance.
OBBB unfairly punishes immigrants and limits opportunities for students with low-incomes
Harms immigrant families: OBBB blocks lawfully present immigrants (including DACA recipients, asylees, refugees, and people with Temporary Protected Status) from receiving SNAP benefits, purchasing ACA coverage, accessing Medicaid and Medicare, or receiving child tax credit. It allocates over $170 billion for mass deportation and border wall expansion.
Undermines education: The OBBB will limit opportunities for low-income students to go to college by restricting Pell grants, capping loans, and undermining income-based payments — which would ultimately increase college costs. 41% of Louisianian undergraduates rely on Pell grants to attend school.
Bottom line
The sheer number of the OBBB cuts means people will lose health insurance, have more trouble paying for groceries, and be forced to choose between paying rent and seeking care or putting food on the table. Because some of these changes won’t be implemented until later, there is still time to contact your member of Congress to fight these changes and additional cuts being proposed by this administration and Senate and House leadership. Join our fight today.