Medicaid is the main payer for 60% of residents in the certified nursing facilities that house 15,033 Kansans, and Derek Schmidt's July 3, 2025 vote helped enact a law that cuts Medicaid and keeps Washington from enforcing a minimum staffing standard in those homes until September 30, 2034.
Schmidt's yes votes also decided the February 2025 budget blueprint, which told the Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel that writes Medicaid law, to find at least $880 billion in deficit reduction, and the May House vote on a bill that held back rules helping low-income seniors get their Medicare premiums covered. Kansas had 6,792 people on waiting lists for Medicaid home care in 2026, before the law's Medicaid cuts phase in.
Derek Schmidt's Votes on Nursing Homes, Home Care and Help for Low-Income Seniors
- Nursing-Home Residents Lose the 2024 Federal Staffing Rule Until 2034 Under the Law Schmidt Voted For. Derek Schmidt was among the 218 House members who sent the final H.R. 1 to the president on July 3, 2025, over 214 no votes. KFF warns its Medicaid cuts "could affect the 22 million people ages 50 and older with coverage under the Medicaid program." The 2024 rule setting minimum staff levels in nursing homes also cannot be enforced by federal officials until September 30, 2034 under the law, a step KFF says cements a court ruling that had already thrown out key parts of the rule. Freezing that staffing rule pulls $23 billion over ten years out of federal Medicaid spending, KFF calculates, money that would have gone to staffing. Separately, the limits the law places on two ways states fund care, provider taxes and directed payments, take $340 billion in federal Medicaid money from hospitals, nursing homes and other providers over the decade.
- Low-Income Seniors Lose Help With Medicare Costs Under Rules the House Bill Froze After Schmidt's May 2025 Vote Carried It. The House bill passed on May 22, 2025 with no votes to spare, 215 to 214, and Derek Schmidt's yes was one it could not do without. That bill, like the final law, put most of two rules on hold that ease the way for older people with low incomes into the Medicaid programs covering Medicare premiums and cost sharing. For the House version, CBO put the savings from pausing the two rules at $167 billion, KFF reports. In the final law, which Schmidt also voted for on July 3, 2025, the two provisions "are collectively estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by $122 billion." An older person who loses the help could be billed $185 a month for Medicare premiums, roughly 20% of what they live on.
- Home Care Became a Target When Schmidt's February 2025 Vote Decided the Budget Blueprint. The House's first vote on the budget blueprint, H.Con.Res. 14, came on February 25, 2025 and was decided by two votes, 217 to 215, with Derek Schmidt voting yes; had he voted no, the House would have deadlocked and the blueprint would have failed. It directed the Energy and Commerce Committee to "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000". Because it is mostly optional, home care is among the Medicaid services most exposed when federal money shrinks. KFF found that "Medicaid pays for almost 70% of all home care spending in the U.S., nearly all of which is provided through optional services," and in the Bipartisan Policy Center's view that optional status makes home care "more vulnerable to reductions during periods of state or federal budget constraints."
What Derek Schmidt's Votes Mean for Older Kansans and Their Caregivers
- 12,800 seniors in Kansas's 2nd District are on the Medicaid program the law cuts. In 2025, 12,800 seniors in Kansas's 2nd District had Medicaid coverage, according to KFF. For them, Medicaid covers a long nursing-home stay once savings are spent and pays for most home care, the aides who let older Kansans stay in their own houses.
- Medicaid pays for 60% of Kansas nursing-home residents, whose homes lose federal money. Among the 15,033 residents of Kansas nursing facilities, 60% rely on Medicaid as their main payer and 10% on Medicare, KFF's tables show. Those homes face the law's limits on provider taxes and directed payments, while the 2024 federal staffing rule stays on hold until 2034.
- A waiting list of 6,792 Kansans for home care stands to grow longer. KFF's 2026 table lists 6,792 people waiting in Kansas for Medicaid home and community-based care. Because home care is largely an optional Medicaid benefit, it is exposed when federal Medicaid money tightens, which would make those waits longer for Kansans hoping to stay out of an institution.
Frequently Asked Questions About Derek Schmidt on Elder care
What is Derek Schmidt's record on elder care under Trump?
Derek Schmidt voted for the final One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which keeps a national nursing-home staffing standard unenforced through 2034 and cuts the Medicaid money behind most nursing-home care, and his votes decided the budget blueprint and the House bill that led to it. The law also freezes rules that help low-income seniors with Medicare costs. In Kansas, three in five nursing-home residents depend on Medicaid to pay.
Did Derek Schmidt vote to block nursing home staffing requirements?
Yes. With his July 3, 2025 yes, Derek Schmidt helped enact a law that stops Washington from enforcing the 2024 nursing-home staffing minimums through September 30, 2034. The Consumer Voice, a national group for long-term care residents, says "The minimum staffing rule was estimated to save 13,000 lives annually."
What does Derek Schmidt's vote mean for families waiting on home care in Kansas?
Derek Schmidt's February 2025 budget vote, which decided the outcome, instructed the Medicaid committee to produce $880 billion or more in deficit reduction, and experts cited by the Bipartisan Policy Center expect the law to "slow or reverse recent HCBS expansion efforts" in states. Kansas already had 6,792 people waiting for those home services in 2026, and nationally the average wait was 32 months in 2025.
Last updated: 2026-10-27