Quietly, Trump and Republicans Are Gunning to Destroy Medicaid

[applegrove]

by Deirdre Fulton at Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/12/29/quietly-trump-and-republicans-are-gunning-destroy-medicaid

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"Neither Mr. Trump nor Senate Republicans may have the stomach to fully own the political risks of Medicare privatization," he continued. "But not only have Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Tom Price, Mr. Trump's choice for secretary of health and human services, made proposals to deeply cut Medicaid through arbitrary block grants or 'per capita caps,' during the campaign, Mr. Trump has also proposed block grants."

Just this month, Vice President-elect Mike Pence told ABC: "With regard to Medicaid...there's a real opportunity, there's a real opportunity as we repeal and replace Obamacare to do exactly what the president-elect also said on the campaign, and that is block granting Medicaid back to the states."

Block-granting can mean funding cuts, The Hill explained:

Block grants would mean limiting federal Medicaid funds to a set amount given to the states, rather than the current federal commitment, which is more open-ended.

Indeed, Sperling pointed to 2012 study (pdf) from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that a Medicaid block-grant proposal from Speaker Ryan "would lead to 14 million to 21 million Americans losing their Medicaid coverage by the 10th year, and that is on top of the 13 million who would lose Medicaid or children's insurance program coverage under an [Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare] repeal."



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