News
Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Harm Millions
- By: USAging
- On: 05/25/2017 09:25:55
- In: Policy & Advocacy
It's been a busy week in Washington, with the President's budget release on Tuesday and the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) score of the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA) released Wednesday. And there's a troubling parallel between the two: deep cuts to Medicaid by reducing the federal role and support for this safety-net health and long-term care program.
As n4a's May 23 Legislative Update and May 24 press release detailed, the Trump Administration's first full budget contains a long list of discretionary-spending programs proposed for elimination. But the budget isn't limited to the discretionary programs that receive appropriations from Congress annually—it also contains policy recommendations that if enacted would fundamentally change the way Medicaid works. The budget includes $610 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years. This would be in addition to cuts already proposed in AHCA.
Just shy of two weeks since the House passed AHCA with barely a vote to spare, the CBO, a non-partisan entity designed to provide policy and economic projections for Congress, released its analysis of the measure.
With $834 billion in Medicaid cuts as well as other provisions that will reduce Medicaid enrollment, CBO estimated that 14 million people would lose Medicaid coverage, a 17 percent drop in enrollment. For more on the CBO score, see our May 25 Legislative Update.
n4a is gravely concerned about these threats to Medicaid, which pays for 60 percent of long-term care in the U.S. As the Senate's response to AHCA develops in the weeks ahead, we will keep n4a members fully apprised.
Meanwhile, we must push back on these budget threats! Please use our May 25 Advocacy Alert to take action on behalf of your agency or yourself, then use our grassroots template (embedded in the Alert) and customize it to your area to GET OUT THE WORD!