‘You can’t even cover them’: Andy Biggs’ 2011 bid to end Medicaid in Arizona

As an Arizona state senator in 2011, Republican gubernatorial nominee Andy Biggs sponsored a bill to abolish the state's Medicaid program, AHCCCS, which then covered nearly 1.4 million people, replacing it with a smaller ‘safety net’ program that Biggs himself acknowledged would not cover all of the roughly 100,000 severely disabled and mentally ill enrollees. He said covering them fully would eliminate the savings the plan was designed to produce.

A Joint Legislative Budget Committee analysis found the plan would have saved Arizona about $1 billion in 2012 while costing the state $4.8 billion in federal funding. Even Republican colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, including one who supported ending Medicaid in principle, called the timeline reckless, and a moderate Republican warned it would devastate rural hospitals; the bill cleared committee but never reached the floor.

Biggs, now in Congress, voted last year for the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ projected to add at least $3.7 trillion to the national debt while cutting Medicaid and food benefits. In August, as the national debt hit $40 trillion, he issued a statement condemning ‘unchecked federal spending.’

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