Today, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee is holding a mark up hearing on its proposal to cut at least $715 B in federal spending from Medicaid.
The proposal would be the largest cut to Medicaid ever. The initial Congressional Budget Office estimates this proposal will result in at least 13.7 million people losing health coverage. The amount of cuts and number of people losing health care coverage will likely increase because the Congressional Budget Office has not scored all the ideas yet.
The proposed cuts would have across-the-board impacts
- The bill has no protections that ensure services remain unchanged for specific populations.
- The scale of proposed Medicaid cuts is so large it will mean big budget holes for states that will force states to find ways to reduce spending for state Medicaid-funded programs.
- Even small cuts to the amount of help people with daily care needs currently receive can be the difference between successfully living at home or being forced into an institution.
- More required information and paperwork means more opportunity for mistakes; mistakes mean delays and loss of coverage.
These cuts do not solve anything that members of Congress claim are problems.
- The math doesn’t work. The scale of cuts proposed is too large to have no impact.
- Across the board cuts is not an effective fraud prevention tool.
- Undocumented immigrants don’t get federal Medicaid. PERIOD.
These cuts do not improve Medicaid.
- These cuts do not help more people stay in their homes and live independently.
- These cuts do not address the shortage of care workers or increase support for small business health or long-term care providers.
- These cuts do not change the reality people with disabilities must live in perpetual poverty to access the care they need that is only available in Medicaid.
Today, the U.S. House Agriculture committee held a markup hearing on its proposal to cut $300 B (almost 30%) of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or FoodShare in Wisconsin.
Two-thirds of the people who use SNAP/Foodshare in Wisconsin are also Medicaid participants.
“Providing adequate health care and food security to low-income people in this country is feasible and a long-term investment that both improves quality of life and reduces costly acute care that can result from unmet needs,” said Beth Swedeen, BPDD Executive Director. “People with disabilities and their families have been clear with lawmakers about the impacts to both them and to their communities if these cuts go through. They are paying attention.”
