State health leaders are pushing back against proposed Medicaid funding cuts in new reporting from POLITICO, making a clear case that Congressional Republicans’ proposals to cut the program would decimate coverage for their constituents and local economies.
The article notes that Congressional proposals have zeroed in on plans to “lower or cap the federal share of Medicaid funding, leaving it to states to pick up the slack or cut benefits, lower eligibility thresholds or reduce payments to providers.”
Indeed, recent research has made clear that these proposals would have wide-ranging impacts across states, leading to job losses, hospital closures and direct beneficiary harm, including for those living in rural communities, pregnant women, new moms, children, low-wage workers in jobs that do not provide health benefits, those in need of mental health and substance use support and seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid for long-term care assistance.
Below are additional insights from POLITICO’s coverage:
- “Those [states] with older and lower-income populations, underfunded programs or already stretched budgets will be hurt more than others, according to several experts and advocates. And many of those are red states.”
- “‘We operate a bare bones program,’ said Debbie Smith, campaign director with the advocacy group Cover Alabama. ‘I would expect that people would be cut off from Medicaid and that benefits would be reduced. I would expect that hospitals would be in crisis.’”
- “‘The problem is health care is constantly evolving and there are new medications and treatments and technologies,’ said Robin Rudowitz, director of the Medicaid and uninsured program for the health research program KFF. ‘If you have a cap on what Medicaid will pay per person, what happens when something new comes along?’”
- “If a state’s spending goes over the spending cap, it has several options to help close the gap — including cutting payments to providers or limiting benefits and coverage, Johnson said. States have already reported problems with provider access, chief among them the closures of rural hospitals.”
- “‘If they take $2.3 trillion, governors are going to be left holding the bag on devastating political decisions,’ Johnson, of the Justice Center in Tennessee, said.”
For more information on Medicaid’s vital role, visit https://modernmedicaid.org.