Trump Doesn't Know What a Medicaid Cut Is

[DonViejo]

June 29, 2017 - 10:37 am

By Ed Kilgore

A presidential tweet yesterday afternoon helps us answer a pertinent question: How does Trump justify supporting GOP health plans that violate his pledge during the campaign to oppose cuts in Medicaid spending?

Link to tweet

It seems POTUS does not understand how Medicaid funding works, and thus what constitutes a “cut.” He appears to think if any program’s funding goes up year-to-year, it hasn’t been “cut.”

This is rarely true, actually. Even with programs that are subject to annual appropriations, providing the same services from one year to the next usually costs more, thanks to inflation and population growth. Demographic changes and economic circumstances can aggravate or ameliorate the need for more funding. But you cannot point to a rise in funding and say, “That’s not a cut,” without knowing a lot more about the program, its services, and the specific population it serves.

With an entitlement program like Medicaid, moreover, in which defined categories of people receive defined benefits automatically, annual spending increases are virtually guaranteed unless the population is shrinking or the economy is really booming. As it happens, Medicaid spending under current policies is going up significantly in the immediate future thanks to at least three factors: the expansion of eligibility 31 states have elected to pursue under the Affordable Care Act; medical inflation, which generally exceeds consumer inflation; and the rapid growth in the senior population, adding to the number of Medicaid’s most expensive beneficiaries.

You can argue, as many Republicans do, that policy makers should act to curb Medicaid’s rising costs. But you can’t claim such efforts are not “a cut.” For the Medicaid expansion population at greatest risk of losing eligibility entirely under the House and Senate health-care bills, that would definitely represent “a cut.” The same is true of any Medicaid participants who may have to deal with reduced benefits or increased “cost-sharing” requirements as states adjust to a per capita cap on federal Medicaid payments.

more
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/trump-doesnt-know-what-a-medicaid-cut-is.html

[Moostache]

1. This guy can't find his own sizable ass with both hands...he is clueless...

That Orange Shit-Gibbon will tweet anything, say anything, promote anything as long as he believes in the end it can be spun to make him THINK he looks better as a result...seriously, if someone convinced him that appearing before the press in blackface and doing an Al Jolson impression was going to make people believe he had "talent", that stupid SOB would do it in a millisecond...