Washington, DC — On this day, 59 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, improving the well-being of millions of Americans and saving countless lives along the way. While the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in Congress have delivered lower health care costs and strengthened Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act, MAGA Republicans continue to escalate their war on American health care. They released Project 2025, a dangerous policy roadmap designed to give more tax breaks to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans by decimating the middle class and stripping away our health care.
Project 2025 would fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act – including its lifesaving insulin cost cap and the power for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Project 2025 also proposes overhauling Medicaid expansion and imposing onerous work requirements, time limits, and lifetime caps, eliminating mandatory benefits, and funneling Medicaid funding toward vouchers for private insurance, whose plans are far less affordable while providing fewer benefits. As a result, millions of people would lose their health care and costs would go up across the board.
To mark the anniversary, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“Nothing better exemplifies the GOP war on health care than their relentless attacks on Medicare and Medicaid. MAGA Republicans have laid bare their plans for American health care: they are going to fight tooth and nail to reverse all of the progress made by Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration, raise costs, deny coverage to millions of people, and slash funding for these critical programs. The Republican position on Medicare and Medicaid is clear – cut it all and let American families suffer the consequences. As a result, families will lose the care they need to stay healthy, the ability to age with dignity, and control over their financial future. There could not be more at stake.”
Background:
FACT SHEET: Trump and MAGA Republicans’ Vision To Slash Medicare and Medicaid
Hiking Costs for Seniors
While President Biden and Democrats delivered lower prices, Trump wants to put drug companies back in charge and slash tens of billions from Medicare in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. The MAGA GOP plan hikes costs on premiums and prescription drug costs for seniors. Trump and his MAGA allies’ plan, Project 2025, would fully repeal the Inflation Reduction Act – including its prescription drug provisions like capping insulin costs and lowering drug prices for seniors. They also want to ban Medicare from being able to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, allowing drug companies to charge as much as they want. Worst of all, Trump wants to slash tens of billions from Medicare in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy, deregulating the program and pushing seniors towards private plans with limited coverage networks.
If Trump and His MAGA Allies Got Their Way:
- GONE: Tens of billions in Medicare funding to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
- GONE: Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for the most popular and expensive prescription drugs.
- GONE: People on Medicare’s prescription drug savings, including a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap and protections from Big Pharma’s price gouges. Nearly 19 million American seniors are expected to save an average of $400 per year.
- GONE: Protections for people on Medicare from drug company price hikes through inflation rebates.
- GONE: Free vaccines for people on Medicare, including for shingles and pneumonia.
- GONE: $35 monthly insulin cap for 4 million people on Medicare.
- GONE: Expanded eligibility for Medicare’s Extra Help program, putting affordable prescription drug coverage further out of reach for millions of seniors.
Kicking Millions of Seniors, Children, and Low-Income Workers Off Medicaid
MAGA Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump are fully committed to their plan to slash Medicaid funding and rip away care from millions. One in four Americans count on Medicaid for access to health care, and the program serves people from all backgrounds, including children, mothers, people of color, working families, people with disabilities, rural Americans, and seniors.
During his first term, Donald Trump waged war on Medicaid. Trump-era Medicaid policies included failed paperwork requirements for people who count on Medicaid, and proposing to arbitrarily change the poverty line to throw more people off of coverage. Project 2025 calls for radically restructuring Medicaid, cutting funding by over 50 percent long-term. Project 2025 proposes to kick people off Medicaid by tying Medicaid funding to state abortion bans, imposing onerous work requirements, and allowing states to redirect Medicaid funding toward private insurance.
Other GOP proposals, such as the Republican Study Committee budget, proposes cutting Medicaid spending by over 54 percent in the next decade and ripping coverage away from tens of millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities. House Republicans have also introduced multiple pieces of legislation over the past year that would deny Medicaid coverage to certain low-income working adults if they do not meet strict work reporting requirements riddled with paperwork and faulty websites, a move that could rip coverage away from as many as tens of million people. The Republican position on Medicaid is clear: cut it all and let Americans suffer the consequences.
The GOP Plan for Medicaid:
- GONE: Billions in state funding for Medicaid, cutting funding by over 50 percent long-term as Republicans plan to eliminate provider taxes in order to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of Americans’ health care.
- GONE: Federal funding for Medicaid expansion, putting coverage for around 24 million Americans at risk.
- GONE: Coverage for 21 million people because of the GOP’s onerous work reporting requirements.
- GONE: Free recommended vaccines for people with Medicaid and CHIP coverage.
- GONE: Protections and health care for up to half of the 38 million children currently covered through Medicaid/CHIP if Project 2025 plans are implemented
- GONE: Essential federal funding for states like Mississippi, whose population makes less than the federal average income, to support their Medicaid programs so that working-class Americans can continue to receive quality and affordable health care.