Washington, DC — Today, the Washington Post reported that Tennessee will be the first state to submit a plan to convert Medicaid into a block grant — a blatant attempt to gut coverage and kick people off the rolls and done at the direction of the state’s Republican governor and at the urging of the Trump administration. Under Tennessee’s proposal “medical services for children, pregnant women, parents and other core groups of people such as those who are blind and disabled” could be gutted. In response, Protect Our Care executive director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:
“The multi-pronged attack on Medicaid by Republican governors and the Trump administration should tell you everything about the motives behind this latest plan: kick people off the rolls, tear apart the foundations of the program, and watch Americans who rely on coverage through Medicaid suffer. This push to turn Medicaid into block grants — along with promoting junk plans, working to repeal the ACA, and the reckless Texas lawsuit — is just another front in the Trump-Republican war on health care. Initiating block grants isn’t about improving or reforming health care; it’s about ripping coverage away from more Americans, plain and simple.”