Minnesota Republican warns about potential Medicaid cuts despite calling program ‘absolutely sick’

Minnesota State Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), has been praised for speaking out against proposed Medicaid cuts despite voting against Medicaid expansion multiple times and calling the program “absolutely sick” in 2010.

In a letter co-authored by Abeler, the veteran state senator and other Minnesota Republicans warned that “drastic reductions to Medicaid funding have the potential to impact the 1.4 million people we serve and place incredible pressure on our overall state budget.” The letter refers to the budget proposal by congressional Republicans and backed by President Donald Trump, which would almost certainly cut billions from Medicaid. 

“There are no other sources to make up the lost federal share beyond severely impacting the seniors and those with disabilities who we serve. This is contrary to how we Republicans respect the aged and the vulnerable,” the statement continued. 

In turn, this rhetoric was commended by Minnesota talking heads like Star Tribune columnist Jill Burcum. 

“As a legislator who’s spent a career focused on health and human services, [Abeler] understands that spending cuts in these areas are particularly painful. When they’ve been required, they’ve come with a personal toll: anguish and months of lost sleep,” Burcum wrote.

But this analysis by Burcum neglects prior comments and votes cast by Abeler against Medicaid. In 2010, Abeler — who has been involved in Minnesota state politics since 1999 — said that “Medicaid as a program is absolutely sick. It’s not doing the good you want to do. To put more people into a program that is as terminally ill as this one does not seem prudent.” He also called the federal health insurance program “a Ponzi scheme” that same year.

And in 2011 and 2013, Abeler voted against Medicaid expansion and sponsored legislation that would have repealed that expansion — the latter of which would have rolled back some $1.7 billion in health care and social service spending. 

This supposed reversal towards sympathy for Medicaid also comes just two months after Abeler said that Democratic victories during the state’s 2024 elections signaled a shift away from “evil” in Minnesota. 

Heartland Signal previously reported on a speech from Abeler where he said, “This [election] was…good versus evil and the dark side versus the light and all this stuff.”

“And I kept praying that God would be merciful, and I think he was. I don’t think Minnesota deserves a mercy, but there’s a remnant here, and here’s the fragment [the crowd] of that remnant.”