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HARRISBURG, PA (June 26, 2025) — With the U.S. Senate poised to vote on a massive budget reconciliation bill this week, the Pennsylvania State Education Association is educating U.S. policymakers and the public on the likely impacts of the billions in proposed cuts to health care, nutrition, and other federal programs in that bill.

“Only when children are nourished and healthy are they ready to learn and grow into their full potential,” said PSEA President Aaron Chapin. “Meeting the most basic needs of our students isn’t frivolous or wasteful spending; it is essential to their success in the classroom and to the success of our nation. Yet Congress continues to push for policies that would cut funding for and take away access to meals and health care for children.”

The reconciliation bill, which passed the U.S. House by a margin of 215-214 in May, uses these deep cuts to health care, nutrition assistance, education services, and other programs to help fund $3.75 trillion in tax cuts heavily benefiting the super wealthy, while still adding trillions to the federal deficit.

“Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities, could lose their health care coverage or nutrition assistance due to these unprecedented cuts,” Chapin said. “This means families will not be able to take their kids to the doctor when they’re sick. It means public schools will lose funding to provide health-related services to students. It means Pennsylvanians will go hungry. Entire communities will suffer if these federal funding cuts are enacted into law, especially those in rural areas.”

“There is no way that Pennsylvania can backfill the loss of billions in federal funding for health care, food assistance, and other programs,” Chapin added. “Services will be cut. Pennsylvania families will suffer. And our students will pay the price for years to come.”

Impact of Cuts to Health Care, Nutrition Assistance in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania receives $28 billion annually in federal funding to provide Medicaid coverage to nearly 3 million Pennsylvanians, including 961,000 children, according to estimates from KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. The U.S. House-passed version of the reconciliation bill could strip Medicaid health coverage from between 333,000 and 550,000 Pennsylvanians — representing a 10-year loss of funding of between $26.3 billion and $43.9 billion, KFF estimates.

Pennsylvania receives $4.3 billion annually in federal funding to provide SNAP nutrition assistance to 1.9 million Pennsylvanians. The U.S. House-passed version of the reconciliation bill could strip SNAP benefits from 401,000 Pennsylvanians, according to estimates from the Center for American Progress.

Impact of Cuts to Health Care, Nutrition Assistance by Pennsylvania Congressional District

Below are two tables containing data on Medicaid and SNAP benefits — and the likely impacts of cuts to these programs included in the budget reconciliation bill — for each of Pennsylvania’s 17 congressional districts:

Chapin is a Stroudsburg Area middle school teacher and president of PSEA. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents about 177,000 active and retired educators and school employees, aspiring educators, higher education staff, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.