People admitted to the country as refugees or granted asylum, along with other lawfully present immigrants who lack green cards, are being dropped from Medicare under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the first time Congress has taken the coverage from people already eligible, and the same law adds $8.8 billion to Medicare's drug spending. Tom Barrett voted for the law on July 3, 2025, after his yes decided its 215-to-214 House passage in May.
Low-income seniors were in the House bill's path too: it froze most of two rules that ease sign-up for help with Medicare premiums. And the tax cuts in the law Barrett voted for on July 3 thin the revenue of Medicare's hospital fund, a fund that 2,250,601 Michiganders on Medicare depend on; his deciding April 2025 vote had carried the final budget resolution that preceded the law.
Tom Barrett's Votes on Medicare Eligibility, Premium Help and the Hospital Trust Fund
- Refugees and Asylees Already on Medicare Are Being Cut Off by the Law Barrett Voted For in July 2025. Section 71201 of H.R. 1, which Tom Barrett voted for on July 3, 2025 as it passed 218 to 214, cuts off Medicare for lawfully present immigrants who hold no green card, refugees and asylees among them. Barrett's vote on May 22 had been one of the 215 that got the House version through by a single vote. KFF calls it "the first time that Congress has eliminated Medicare coverage" for people who qualified under the law, and the Congressional Budget Office counts "0.1 million Medicare beneficiaries losing their Medicare coverage as of 2034," with coverage for those already flagged during the grace period ending February 1, 2027 under CMS's proposed timeline. A different provision widens which rare-disease medicines are shielded from negotiation, at a cost to Medicare of $8.8 billion by the Congressional Budget Office's reckoning.
- Seniors With Low Incomes Lose an Easier Path to Premium Help in the House Bill That Passed on Barrett's Vote in May 2025. H.R. 1's House version could not spare Barrett's May 22, 2025 yes, because it passed 215 to 214. Like the law that followed, that bill put on hold most of two rules written to make it simpler for seniors with little income to get enrolled in the state programs that cover their Medicare premiums and cost sharing. Earlier Congressional Budget Office work, done before the Senate changed the bill, projected that under the freeze 1.3 million fewer people on Medicare would have Medicaid help in 2034, and KFF calculates that a senior left without it could wind up "paying $185 per month in Medicare premiums, or about 20% of income."
- Medicare's Hospital Trust Fund Drains a Quarter Sooner Under the July 2025 Law Barrett Voted For, After His Deciding April Budget Vote. Barrett's yes on April 10, 2025 carried the final budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 14, 216 to 214; a switch by him would have tied and sunk it. Its tax instruction gave the Ways and Means Committee license to "increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000". The law Barrett then voted for on July 3, 2025 shrinks the income tax on Social Security benefits, and since some of what that tax raises goes to the trust fund for Medicare hospital coverage, the Medicare trustees now see the fund running dry in 2033, a quarter sooner than before, primarily because revenue from taxing benefits is "lower than previously projected due to changes in the 2025 budget reconciliation bill," KFF reports.
What Tom Barrett's Medicare Votes Mean for Michigan's 2.25 Million Enrollees
- Medicare's hospital fund, which pays inpatient bills for Michigan's 2,250,601 enrollees, is projected to empty a quarter sooner. KFF data show 2,250,601 Michiganders on Medicare in 2024, 864,969 of them in traditional Medicare. Their inpatient care is billed to Medicare's hospital insurance fund, whose projected exhaustion now falls in the second quarter of 2033, one quarter earlier, primarily because of the law's tax changes.
- 10,200 seniors in Barrett's district are on Medicaid, the group the frozen premium-help rules were meant to reach. In 2025, 10,200 seniors in Michigan's 7th District were Medicaid enrollees, KFF counts. Medicaid is how seniors with low incomes like theirs get help with Medicare premiums and cost sharing, and the rules the law froze were meant to make that help easier to get and keep.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tom Barrett on Medicare
What is Tom Barrett's record on Medicare under Trump?
Under Trump, Tom Barrett's Medicare record runs through two votes for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the first on May 22 and the second on July 3, 2025: the law takes Medicare away from some lawfully present immigrants, sets aside most of two rules that help seniors with low incomes enroll in premium assistance, and costs Medicare an extra $8.8 billion on drugs. The law's tax cuts also move the hospital fund's exhaustion up a quarter, within 2033, and Barrett's April 2025 budget vote decided the resolution that set the law in motion.
Who on Medicare in Michigan gets cut off because of Tom Barrett's vote?
Under the law Tom Barrett voted for, Michigan enrollees who came as refugees or asylees, hold Temporary Protected Status, entered on humanitarian parole, or have certain other lawful statuses short of a green card lose Medicare, the Center for Medicare Advocacy explains. Social Security's notices to the grace-period group were set, under CMS's proposed timeline, for August through November 2026, with their coverage ending on February 1, 2027; for people identified later, coverage ends at the close of the month after their termination notice arrives.
Did Tom Barrett vote to limit Medicare drug price negotiation?
Yes. Section 71203, from the bill Tom Barrett said yes to on July 3, 2025, lets more rare-disease drugs escape Medicare price negotiation, and KFF expects the cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo to reach negotiation later, "by at least one year." Those two drugs are expensive for Medicare: "Medicare and beneficiaries spent $5.6 billion on Keytruda and $2.0 billion on Opdivo" in 2023.
Last updated: 2026-10-27