‘It’s All Connected’: Planned Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Everyone, Governor Says
Republicans looking at hacking healthcare program to pay for tax breaks for the rich
The massive budget cuts congressional Republicans are considering for Medicaid not only would hurt those who rely on the healthcare program for low-income Americans.
They would destabilize the entire US healthcare system.
That’s according to the Democratic governor of New Mexico, the state with the largest population of Medicaid recipients.
Republicans are considering a massive, $880 billion swipe at federal Medicaid spending as part of their plan to find funds to pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
The Republican-controlled House this week approved a budget blueprint as the first step towards enacting those spending cuts.
Donald Trump both publicly promised not to cut Medicaid, the 60-year-old program that provides health coverage for the nation’s children and low-income Americans. But he also has endorsed the House budget proposals.
The cuts considered for Medicaid would be “devastating,” said Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico, where fully one-third of the population either receives Medicaid coverage or through children’s health coverage.
“It means that more than 800,000 New Mexicans would be under- or uninsured completely,” Lujan Grisham said in a recent interview with CBS News. “So we rip those healthcare benefits.”
In addition, 313,000 children in New Mexico also would find coverage reduced or cut off completely, the governor added.
But these cuts also mean even more than that, according to Lujan Grisham, calling it a “tariff” on the entire US healthcare system.
“That means your insurance premiums go up, your co-pays go up, that means Medicare covers less, your prescription drug costs go up, [and] no one has primary care docs,” she said. “This healthcare investment is all connected.”
The broader US healthcare system already is under severe strain, with rural hospitals closing, and nursing homes and assisted-living facilities closing, the governor said.
“It’s all connected,” she said. “This is devastating to America’s healthcare system, and I hope that Republicans in Congress, frankly, come to their senses. And it’s another example where President Trump says one thing and then does exactly the opposite.”
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