“A Betrayal”: Tom Kean Jr. Blasted for Gutting Medicaid, Putting New Jerseyans at Risk

In a local column, Kean Jr. and his fellow New Jersey Republicans were put on blast for pretending to protect Medicaid when in fact, they voted to cut the lifesaving program by nearly $1 trillion.

Read the brutal column for yourself:

NJ.com Guest Columnist: N.J.’s GOP congressmen failed to protect Medicaid. Their vote put thousands at risk.

• Medicaid isn’t some distant policy concept but the lifeline that holds together thousands of families who care for people with disabilities.
• And yet, [Jeff] Van Drew and his fellow New Jersey Republicans, Reps. Chris Smith and Tom Kean Jr., voted in favor of the 2025 Reconciliation Act — a law that his fellow GOP colleagues claim doesn’t “cut” Medicaid. In their minds, it’s just a tidy trim to help the program run more “efficiently.”
• The law’s most dangerous provision requires every Medicaid enrollee to go through eligibility redetermination every six months — instead of once a year.
• For a person with autism, cerebral palsy, or chronic mental illness, that’s dangerous. These are lifelong conditions. No one is waking up cured six months after qualifying for Medicaid.
• Medicaid isn’t just a card in a wallet. It’s what pays for home health care, therapies, assistive equipment, and residential services. Lose it, and you risk being discharged from a nursing home, losing access to critical medication, or losing caregivers who can no longer be paid.
• In New Jersey, more than 900,000 residents depend on Medicaid, according to the New Jersey Department of Human Services. It should be noted that the six-month rule applies to Medicaid enrollees who gained Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. That includes tens of thousands of people with lifelong disabilities.
• The department itself warned federal officials that shortening redetermination to every six months would overwhelm caseworkers and result in eligible people being dropped through no fault of their own.
• We can’t afford to lose more ground. But this law, which our three Republican Congressmen voted for, will push many families and workers over the edge.
• Their vote wasn’t just a mistake. It was a betrayal, especially to the families who believed Van Drew’s April 14th promise.
• People with disabilities deserve stability. They deserve respect. They deserve to be left alone—not forced to jump through impossible hoops every six months just to keep the care they need to survive.
• Rep. Van Drew — and Smith and Kean — your vote helped build a bureaucratic cliff. You still have time to stop your constituents from falling off it.