Republicans’ “Millionaires Over Medicaid” Budget Is Unpopular and Would Result in Millions of Americans Losing Coverage
Congressional Republicans are facing an onslaught of negative headlines after making official their plans to put Medicaid on the chopping block. Republicans released their budget blueprint yesterday, which included trillions in cuts to Medicaid in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. These severe cuts to the largest health insurance program in the country would result in millions losing coverage, including children, new moms, seniors, and people with disabilities. Republicans’ proposed budget is out of touch with the American people – new polling from Hart Research shows broad opposition across party lines to the Republican health care agenda, including cutting Medicaid. A majority of voters, including Trump voters, have a favorable view of Medicaid, seeing it as an important source of health care.
HEADLINES
The Hill: GOP Leaders Downplay Medicaid Cuts As They Seek $2T in Savings.
- House Republicans are debating how deep they need to cut to pay for an extension of President Trump’s tax cuts and border enforcement funding, and how much political backlash they can endure.
Talking Points Memo: House GOP Makes Official Its Plan For Devastating Cuts To Medicaid.
- But one thing is clear now that has been clear for months: Medicaid, the program that covers health care costs for low-income Americans, is, by design, the main target of the House GOP’s federal spending cuts proposal.
- The document charges the House Energy and Commerce Committee with finding $880 billion in ten-year savings, more than half of the total cuts outlined in the proposal. It also directs the House Committee on Agriculture to identify another $230 billion in cuts. The Energy and Commerce Committee oversees Medicaid spending and the Ag panel has jurisdiction over SNAP and other nutritional programs.
Fierce Healthcare: Medicaid Likely Faces Severe Cuts in House’s New Budget Framework.
- Medicaid supports 80 million low-income people in the U.S. and accounts for one-sixth of all healthcare spending.
HuffPost: House Republicans Eye Big Cuts To Medicaid And Food Assistance.
- The document instructs the House Energy and Commerce committee to find $880 billion in ten-year savings. Analysts and liberal advocates told HuffPost that is a huge tell, because Energy and Commerce has jurisdiction over Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays medical bills for more than 70 million low-income Americans.
Axios: House Budget Sets Up Major Medicaid Overhaul
- The House budget resolution released Wednesday calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in savings, setting up the prospect of major cuts to Medicaid… The budget calls for $2 trillion less spending on mandatory programs, much of which could come from Medicaid.
Roll Call: Medicaid Overhaul Proves to Be Politically Perilous Proposition.
- But it also makes significant changes very difficult. States already face Medicaid funding challenges, with rising prescription drug costs and the growing cost of medical care. Medicaid also continues to enjoy broad support from the public, and Democrats indicate they will hit Republicans on “cuts” in the midterms should Republicans succeed in their efforts.
AZ Central: Opinion: Congress Needs to Tell Us How Many People Will Die When It Kills Medicaid.
- If House Republicans get their way, it’ll happen. According to the House GOP budget plan, congressional committees would be ordered to find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade… That couldn’t be done without Medicaid cuts.
- “There’s not enough money they have jurisdiction over. Republicans say they’re not cutting Medicare, so that means they’re cutting Medicaid.”
Kansas Reflector: Opinion: Partisan Proposals to Slash Medicaid Will Leave Kansans Poorer and Sicker.
- Make no mistake, Kansans would lose health coverage and access to care as a result of these cuts. Higher rates of uninsured Kansans means more costly emergency room bills, greater medical debt, and more unpaid bills to hospitals and doctors. Those uncompensated costs would have to be absorbed locally by providers and taxpayers. This means we all — individuals, families and businesses — would pay more for health care.
Public News Service: Report: Native Communities Would See Big Impacts From Proposed Medicaid Cuts.
- About 23% of Montanans rely on Medicaid for their health coverage. But the four counties with the highest rates – roughly 40%- are all home to American Indian reservations.
MedCity News: GOP Seeks to Drastically Cut Medicaid Spending — How Are Healthcare Leaders Reacting?
- House Republicans introduced a budget plan Wednesday that seeks to cut Medicaid spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Leaders in the hospital world are sounding the alarm, highlighting that the plan would result in millions of vulnerable Americans losing healthcare coverage, as well as a surge in uncompensated care for providers.
WGRZ: State Lawmakers Focus on Medicaid Costs Amid Potential Cuts from Congress.
- …the federal government was expected to cover $70 billion of the overall projected $123 billion total of Medicaid spending in this state. The new budget proposal puts the state’s share at $44 billion.
Augusta Free Press: Republicans Seek to Find $2 Trillion in Cuts; Medicaid and SNAP on the Chopping Block.
- Under this budget plan, Medicaid and food assistance programs will be on the chopping block for many Americans. Just last month, President Donald Trump promised to “love and cherish Medicaid,” but he also gave himself an out. “We’re not going to do anything with that, unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump said. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.”
- Republicans targeted Medicaid during Trump’s first term in the White House aiming to “fix” the system and dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Republicans had a majority in Congress, but the measures failed to pass due to extreme backlash from the public putting pressure on legislators.
Daily Kos: Here’s the Heinous Way Republicans Plan to Fund Tax Cuts for the Rich.
- House Republicans released a budget proposal Wednesday outlining plans to pay for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the rich by forcing deep cuts to programs like food stamps and Medicaid.
- Republicans have admitted that those kinds of cuts will be “painful” for Americans. Ultimately, making these kinds of cuts could be politically disastrous for the GOP.
Yahoo! News: Trump Drew the Line at Social Security Cuts in Republicans’ Proposed Budget, but Medicaid is on the Chopping Block.
- The blueprint draft called for at least $880 billion in spending cuts from the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade. This would likely mean large Medicaid cuts, potentially leading many Americans to lose their benefits. A document outlining reconciliation options reveals over $2 trillion in potential Medicaid cuts, though some could overlap.
- Figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have argued that Medicaid is ineffective, and some question whether it has improved people’s health. Critics of the program have also said people relying on Medicaid could get insurance from other sources, such as their workplace. However, Medicaid expansions have been shown to improve care access, reduce mortality rates, and spark economic growth.
Bloomberg Law: Cut to Medicaid Match Risks Coverage Loss, Higher State Costs.
- If states choose not to offset this funding loss, their Medicaid programs could see a shortfall of $1.7 trillion over 10 years. Under this scenario, about 20 million beneficiaries nationwide could lose coverage. The report notes that states looking to maintain continuity of care for their Medicaid population will likely need to increase tax revenues or decrease spending on non-Medicaid services such as education to compensate for this sharp decline in federal income.
Newsweek: Millions of Americans Could Lose Medicaid Coverage.
- While President Donald Trump has vowed not to slash the health insurance program, Republicans in Congress are mulling over as much as $2.3 trillion in potential cuts over the next decade, including imposing limits on federal Medicaid matching funds and creating work requirements.