by Adam Friedman, Tennessee Lookout
July 11, 2025

President Donald Trump’s signature legislation to extend and expand tax cuts in exchange for cuts to Medicaid, Affordable Care Act health coverage and SNAP benefits will have a profound impact on Tennessee, according to estimates by multiple policy groups.

Trump signed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4. The tax cuts will take effect almost immediately, while the full impact of cuts to social safety net programs will be phased in over the next several years.

Funding cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would primarily come from new work requirements for adults. This bureaucratic maneuver would impose additional paperwork requirements that advocates expect will disqualify recipients who are unable to complete them.

KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, estimates that changes to funding of the Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance as part of Trump’s legislation will result in around 2% of Tennesseans, or 68,000 people, losing access to their federally subsidized insurance. This matches a similar estimate made by the U.S. House Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee, which predicts even more dire consequences of 170,000 losing coverage.

But for Medicaid, Tennessee will see fewer cuts to its version of the program, called TennCare. Tennessee is one of 10 states that didn’t expand the program to provide insurance to more people living on near-poverty-line wages. 

Nearly 300,000 more Tennesseeans would have had access to Medicaid if the lawmakers had expanded the coverage allowed under the Affordable Care Act, according to the Tennessee Justice Center. The results of having fewer people covered mean fewer will lose coverage. 

Tennesseans will lose approximately 20% of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In 2022, nearly 700,000 Tennesseans received around $1.4 billion in SNAP funds, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. About half of those in Tennessee who qualify for the federal assistance are children.

Tennesseans could receive around $7 billion in income tax cuts in 2026 as part of Trump’s legislation, according to an analysis compiled by The Lookout using U.S. Census household income data and estimates from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

In dollar terms, most of the tax cuts will benefit the wealthiest households in Tennessee.

Who voted for the bill

All eight of Tennessee’s Republican House members voted in favor of the legislation, as did both of the state’s GOP U.S. Senators.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act prevents the largest tax hike in American history and secures the largest tax cut ever for individuals and families who endured four years of crushing inflation and reckless spending,” said Tennessee U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in a statement.

The only member of the Tennessee delegation to oppose the legislation was Memphis Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen.

“The GOP’s One Big Ugly Bill fails every basic moral test,” said Cohen in a statement. “They are taking food and health care away from poor people so that the wealthiest individuals who have ever lived can become even wealthier.”

Note: To embed these charts on you’re own website, click these links and find the embed widget in the top right corner. Chart 1. Chart 2. Chart 3. 

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article presents a largely factual report on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” detailing both the tax cuts and associated social program cuts. The language is generally neutral but highlights the potentially negative impact on Medicaid, Affordable Care Act coverage, and SNAP benefits, with references to nonprofit and Democratic sources emphasizing harm to lower-income individuals. It includes statements from both Republican supporters and a Democratic opponent, balancing viewpoints. However, the framing around cuts to social safety nets and the quoting of critical Democratic commentary alongside Republican praise suggests a slight lean toward a Center-Right perspective, reflecting mainstream conservative policy coverage with acknowledgment of progressive critiques.