Jeff Van Drew's elder-care votes came at three points: on February 25, 2025 he decided the budget plan that demanded $880 billion from Medicaid's committee; on May 22 his yes passed a House bill that froze rules easing enrollment in premium help for low-income seniors; and on July 3 he voted for the final law, whose Medicaid cuts, KFF says, "could affect the 22 million people ages 50 and older with coverage under the Medicaid program."
Inside New Jersey's certified nursing facilities, Medicaid foots the bill first for 61% of the 41,563 residents, and 3,683 New Jersey residents were on the state's waiting list for Medicaid home and community care in 2026. The law also shelves the national minimum staffing standard for nursing homes until 2034.
Jeff Van Drew's Votes on Nursing Homes, Home Care and Seniors' Medicaid
- Van Drew Voted to Freeze the Nursing-Home Staffing Standard Until 2034 and Shrink Long-Term Care's Medicaid Funding, in July 2025. On July 3, 2025, 218 House members sent the final H.R. 1 to the president over 214 opponents, Jeff Van Drew among them. One provision bars Washington, through September 30, 2034, from enforcing the nursing-home staffing rule adopted in 2024, a move that, as KFF explains, cements a federal court ruling that had already struck down core parts of it. Holding off the rule is worth $23 billion in lower federal Medicaid outlays over ten years in KFF's accounting, while the residents' advocacy group Consumer Voice says "The minimum staffing rule was estimated to save 13,000 lives annually." The law's new ceilings on provider taxes and state-directed payments, which pay hospitals and other providers as well as nursing homes, add up to $340 billion in federal reductions over ten years.
- Van Drew's Deciding Vote Passed a House Bill That Froze Easier Enrollment in Premium Help for Low-Income Seniors, in May 2025. H.R. 1 cleared the House on May 22, 2025 by a single vote, 215 to 214, and Van Drew's yes was part of that one-vote edge. In the House text, as in the final law, most of two rules that smooth enrollment for poorer seniors in the programs covering Medicare premiums and copays went on hold. In the final law, pausing the two rules is "collectively estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by $122 billion," according to KFF, and a senior who misses out on the help can end up owing $185 each month for Medicare premiums, close to 20% of a small income.
- Van Drew Cast a Deciding Vote for the February 2025 Budget Plan That Ordered $880 Billion From Medicaid's Committee. The House took up H.Con.Res. 14 on February 25, 2025 and adopted it 217 to 215 with Van Drew in the majority; a reversal by him alone would have left a tie, which kills a resolution. It directed the Energy and Commerce Committee to "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000". Home care is especially exposed to that pressure: "Medicaid pays for almost 70% of all home care spending in the U.S., nearly all of which is provided through optional services," KFF reports, and the Bipartisan Policy Center warns that optional benefits are "more vulnerable to reductions during periods of state or federal budget constraints."
What Jeff Van Drew's Votes Mean for Older New Jersey Residents and Their Caregivers
- 14,000 seniors in Van Drew's district count on Medicaid for care Medicare does not cover. KFF's 2025 district data show 14,000 Medicaid enrollees age 65 and up in New Jersey's 2nd District. For older people, Medicaid is what pays for long nursing-home stays and home aides once savings run out, so every dollar the law takes from New Jersey's program is a dollar less for that care.
- Most of New Jersey's nursing-home residents, 61%, depend on Medicaid, and the law blocked the federal minimum staffing standard. Of the 41,563 residents of New Jersey's certified nursing facilities, 61% have Medicaid as their main payer, KFF data show, so the money the law cuts and the staffing standard it blocks both reach those residents directly: fewer aides on a shift means longer waits for help eating, bathing and getting out of bed.
- A list of 3,683 New Jersey residents waiting on Medicaid home care faces a thinner Medicaid budget. New Jersey had 3,683 people on its Medicaid home and community-based services waiting list in 2026, KFF reports. Because those services are optional for states, they are an easy target when Medicaid money tightens, and a longer list means more people going without the aide who would keep them out of a nursing facility.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jeff Van Drew on Elder care
What is Jeff Van Drew's record on elder care under Trump?
Jeff Van Drew supplied deciding votes in 2025 for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's February budget plan and its May House passage, then voted for the final law in July. Under it, Washington cannot enforce a nursing-home staffing minimum until 2034, poorer seniors lose eased access to premium aid, and the Medicaid program covering 61% of New Jersey nursing-home residents as primary payer gets less federal money.
Is there still a federal minimum staffing standard for nursing homes after Jeff Van Drew's vote?
No: enforcement of the standard was barred until 2034 under the final H.R. 1, which Jeff Van Drew voted for on July 3, 2025, and the administration then repealed the minimum staffing standards outright through an interim final rule on December 2, 2025, LeadingAge reported. New Jersey's 41,563 nursing-facility residents are left without the federal minimum staffing ratios.
When do the payment limits Jeff Van Drew voted for reach New Jersey nursing homes?
Under the law Jeff Van Drew voted for, existing state-directed payments for nursing-facility and inpatient hospital services that run above the new caps, set at 100% of Medicare rates in expansion states such as New Jersey, start being cut back on January 1, 2028, according to KFF. From that date New Jersey facilities, most of whose residents rely on Medicaid first, start losing those dollars.
Last updated: 2026-10-27