The State Senate Appropriations Committee questioned Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh at the hearing.<\/p>\n
HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Department of Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh outlined her department\u2019s response to federal policy changes as she faced questions from lawmakers during a budget hearing before the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n
The cost to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid in Pennsylvania is expected to increase, while new work requirements for SNAP have already led to thousands of residents being removed from the program through changes made this past June and September.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince June 1, what we have seen in total is about 89,000 individuals lose access to SNAP,\u201d Arkoosh said. \u201c59,000 of that 89,000 is a result of those changes in September.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hearing comes as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s proposed budget includes roughly $1 billion in new spending to fund Medicaid. Arkoosh told lawmakers that rising administrative costs, along with SNAP enrollment changes that could impact Medicaid participation, make additional investment necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorst case scenario, starting in 2028 we\u2019ll begin to see what we total up over the next decade, $20 billion of cuts,\u201d Arkoosh said.<\/p>\n
The spending proposal drew scrutiny from committee chairman Scott Martin (R-Lancaster), who noted the administration\u2019s projected $200 million annual spending increase over the next five years is significantly lower than the roughly $900 million average annual increases seen over the past 12 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, by increasing the 2026\u201327 budget request by the actual average increase, instead of the unrealistic $200 million, we\u2019re left with a $7 billion hole over those planning years,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
Arkoosh said uncertainty surrounding potential federal funding reductions is the reason behind the more conservative projections.<\/p>\n
Funding for rural hospitals also became a major topic during the hearing. Arkoosh warned that many potential Medicaid cuts would disproportionately affect rural healthcare systems, losses the state may not be able to replace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really in a very difficult spot in terms of our hospitals. I don\u2019t want to sugarcoat it,\u201d Arkoosh said. \u201cIf HR 1 is not mitigated in some way, it will be quite difficult for us to backfill these levels of cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hearing sets the stage for a broader budget battle in Harrisburg, as lawmakers weigh how much Pennsylvania can afford to backfill potential federal reductions to social programs serving millions of residents, while also maintaining the commonwealth\u2019s long-term fiscal stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s another turnaround to say we need another $1.6 billion \u2014 whatever the number is \u2014 you can understand why that causes a lot of budget heartburn and doesn\u2019t truly reflect the commonwealth\u2019s fiscal direction,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State Senate Appropriations Committee questioned Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh at the hearing. HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-123548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}