On July 3, 2025, Bryan Steil, the House member for Wisconsin's 1st District, voted for final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the first law to take Medicare away from people who were already eligible, after casting a deciding vote for the House version in May. The law also puts a moratorium through September 30, 2034 on most of two rules meant to widen help with Medicare premiums for low-income seniors.
Steil also voted for the budget resolution that set up the law's tax cuts, which the Medicare trustees say lowered the revenue of Medicare's hospital trust fund, and in 2022 he voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which created Medicare drug price negotiation. At an August 2025 town hall he said Medicare was protected in the bill. In Wisconsin, 1,315,539 people were enrolled in Medicare in 2024.
Bryan Steil's Votes and Statements on Medicare Coverage, Premiums and Drug Prices
- Steil Voted for the First Law to End Medicare for People Already Enrolled, in July 2025. On July 3, 2025, Bryan Steil voted for final passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 218 to 214. Its section 71201 ends Medicare for lawfully present immigrants who are not green-card holders, such as refugees and asylees. KFF says "This is the first time that Congress has eliminated Medicare coverage" for people who were legally eligible; the Congressional Budget Office projects "0.1 million Medicare beneficiaries losing their Medicare coverage as of 2034," and for people already identified during the law's grace period, coverage ends on February 1, 2027. The same law widens the exemption of orphan drugs from Medicare price negotiation, which costs Medicare an additional $8.8 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
- Steil Cast a Deciding Vote for the House Bill, Including Cuts to Help With Medicare Premiums, in May 2025. On May 22, 2025, Steil voted for the House version of H.R. 1, which passed 215 to 214 with one member voting present, so it could not have passed without his vote. Like the final law, it put a moratorium on most of two rules that made it easier for low-income seniors to enroll in the programs that pay their Medicare premiums. An earlier Congressional Budget Office analysis found that halting those rules would leave 1.3 million fewer Medicare beneficiaries with Medicaid coverage in 2034, and KFF estimates that a senior who loses that help would end up "paying $185 per month in Medicare premiums, or about 20% of income."
- Steil Cast a Deciding Vote for the Budget Plan Behind the Tax Cuts That Lowered Medicare's Hospital Fund Revenue, in April 2025. On April 10, 2025, Steil voted for the final budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 14, which passed 216 to 214, so a switch by him alone would have tied it, and a tie fails. It let the Ways and Means Committee write tax changes that "increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000". Those tax changes lower the income tax on Social Security benefits, which is one source of Medicare hospital funding, and the Medicare trustees moved the hospital trust fund's projected depletion one quarter earlier, to 2033, mainly because Social Security tax revenue is "lower than previously projected due to changes in the 2025 budget reconciliation bill," KFF reports.
- Steil Voted Against Medicare Drug Price Negotiation, Which 85% of the Public Supports, in 2022. On August 12, 2022, Steil voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed 220 to 207 and lets Medicare negotiate prices for some drugs. His position runs against the public: KFF reported in March 2026 that 85% of the public supported allowing the federal government to negotiate lower prices for people with Medicare.
- Steil Said Medicare Was Protected in the Bill; It Ends Coverage for Some Enrollees and Weakens the Hospital Fund. At his August 7, 2025 telephone town hall, asked about Medicare cuts under the law, Steil said he would keep watching "to make sure that we're protecting Medicare as well as Social Security, where those were protected in the bill" (Racine County Eye transcript). The law ends Medicare for some enrollees under section 71201, and it brings forward the day the hospital trust fund runs out; at that point current law means "an 11% cut in hospital payments, growing to a 16% cut by 2040," the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reports.
What the Medicare Changes Bryan Steil Voted For Mean for Wisconsin
- 1.3 million Wisconsinites depend on the Medicare program the law changed. 1,315,539 Wisconsinites were enrolled in Medicare in 2024, according to KFF; they rely on the hospital trust fund that now runs short in 2033 and on drug prices that the orphan-drug exemption keeps out of negotiation.
- 15,000 seniors in Steil's district rely on Medicaid on top of Medicare. KFF counts 15,000 seniors among the Medicaid enrollees in Wisconsin's 1st District in 2025; Medicaid helps low-income seniors with Medicare premiums and cost sharing, the help that the enrollment rules the law put on hold were meant to widen.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bryan Steil on Medicare
What is Bryan Steil's record on Medicare under Trump?
Bryan Steil voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in May and July 2025; it ends Medicare for some lawfully present immigrants, puts on hold most of two rules that help low-income seniors pay their premiums, and widens the exemption from drug price negotiation at a cost of $8.8 billion. He also cast a deciding vote for the budget plan behind the law's tax cuts, which lower the revenue of Medicare's hospital trust fund. In 2022 Steil voted against the law that lets Medicare negotiate drug prices.
Which Medicare enrollees lose coverage under the law Bryan Steil voted for?
Under the law Bryan Steil voted for on July 3, 2025, refugees, asylees, people with Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian parolees and some other lawfully present immigrants lose Medicare eligibility, according to the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Social Security planned to mail first notices to the grace-period group from August through November 2026, with coverage ending February 1, 2027; people identified later lose coverage at the end of the month after their termination notice.
How did Bryan Steil vote on Medicare drug price negotiation?
Bryan Steil voted against Medicare drug price negotiation twice: on December 12, 2019 against H.R. 3, a House bill that would have let Medicare negotiate prices for up to 250 brand-name drugs and died in the Senate, and on August 12, 2022 against the Inflation Reduction Act, whose narrower negotiation program became law over his vote.
Last updated: 2026-10-26