CENTRAL TEXAS (KXXV) — The Department of Health and Human Services is set to cut the jobs of more than 10,000 employees.
These cuts could affect people who work with Medicare and Medicaid, and could ultimately hurt Central Texans on those insurances.
Jerry Moore has been on Medicare and Medicaid for 13 years.
“I depend on it now because I’m about to get my kidney and everything," Jerry Moore said
He has kidney problems, so those insurances are a lifesaver for him.
"I’m on dialysis so it covers that so I’m good.”
With the recent announcement by the Trump administration to cut 10,000 more Health and Human Services jobs, Medicare and Medicaid recipients like Moore have reason to be concerned.
The recent 10,000 cuts come on top of the previous 10,000 employees who left voluntarily.
That takes the workforce from 82,000 to 62,000.
In this latest downsizing, HHS will consolidate from 28 divisions to 15 including a new administration for a healthy America.
Regional offices will be reduced from 10 to 5.
25 News reached out to the state HHS office in Austin to see how many employees here in Central Texas will be affected, and they sent a statement which reads:
“HHSC is currently reviewing the notification from SAMHSA and assessing the impact.”
If these cuts affect Medicare and Medicaid, it will have huge impacts on patients like Moore.
“I know insurance is high and if it wasn’t for them helping me it would be hard on me — I’d be depending on my family more.”
The agency has said that it will ensure that Medicare and Medicaid and other essential health services will remain intact.
