Congressional lawmakers are going through difficult arithmetic as they hammer out a finances plan to finance President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Republicans have to liberate roughly $4 trillion to pay for renewing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire on the finish of the yr. Trump has vowed to not contact the most costly authorities applications, together with Medicare and Social Safety.
He’s been much less clear about his plan for Medicaid.
On Wednesday, he endorsed a Home GOP plan that cuts a minimum of $880 billion from, very possible, Medicaid — the federal-state medical health insurance program for People with low incomes or disabilities.
As my colleague Phil Galewitz studies, adjustments to broaden Medicaid have grow to be entrenched in most states — and their budgets — over the previous decade. Hospitals, which not solely deal with but additionally make use of a number of People, are reaching out to Congress with issues.
Medicaid can also be widespread. A January KFF ballot discovered that about 3 in 4 People view this system favorably. So Republicans must be strategic about cuts.
However first, let’s again up. What’s Medicaid? My colleague Sam Whitehead and I printed a helpful explainer this week.
Medicaid, which turns 60 this summer season, was created as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Nice Society” technique to assault poverty together with Medicare, the federal medical health insurance program for these 65 and older.
Greater than 79 million individuals obtain companies from Medicaid or its intently associated Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Program. That’s about 20% of the nation’s inhabitants.
About 40% of all youngsters are lined by Medicaid or CHIP. Medicaid additionally pays for 4 in 10 births and covers prices of caring for greater than 60% of nursing house residents.
State and federal spending on this system reached $880 billion final yr.
Again in Washington, Phil writes that the GOP is contemplating just a few methods to shrink Medicaid.
They might cut back how a lot cash the federal authorities sends to states, leaving state leaders to resolve whether or not and how you can plug finances holes.
One thought Republicans are brazenly speaking about is imposing work necessities. Most adults enrolled in Medicaid are already working or in all probability could be exempt as a result of they’re in class, are caregivers, or are disabled.
However, as Sam and I report, state experiences with work necessities present they make it more durable for even eligible individuals to get protection.
On the coronary heart of all of it are key questions in regards to the function of presidency in individuals’s well being: How massive ought to the U.S. medical insurance coverage security internet be? Who deserves authorities help?
And, maybe most urgently, the place will those that might lose Medicaid go for protection?
We’d like to talk with present and former personnel from the Division of Well being and Human Companies or its part businesses who consider the general public ought to perceive the influence of what’s taking place inside the federal well being paperwork. Please message KFF Well being Information on Sign at (415) 519-8778 or get in contact right here.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working applications at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.
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