Trump promised not to cut Medicaid. His health bill will cut $880 billion from it.
Trump promised not to cut Medicaid. His health bill will cut $880 billion from it.
Updated by Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com Mar 13, 2017, 5:25pm EDT
As a candidate, Donald Trump promised that he wouldn’t cut Medicaid. He’d “save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts,” he pledged during his announcement speech. “Have to do it.”
The House Republican health care bill doesn’t just break that promise — it makes a mockery of it.
According to the Congressional Budget Office estimate released Monday, the American Health Care Act would slash $880 billion in federal funds from Medicaid in the next 10 years. As a result, 14 million fewer people would have Medicaid coverage in 2026, the agency estimates.
Trump’s promise not to cut Medicaid wasn’t a one-off — he used it specifically to argue that he was different from other Republicans. In May 2015 when he was preparing his campaign, he said, “I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican is going to cut.”
http://www.vox.com/2017/3/13/14914812/trump-ahca-medicaid-cuts