Medicaid is a public health insurance program that covers about 71 million low-income, disabled and elderly Americans.
States have already experimented with work requirements, such as in Arkansas, where work requirements led to 18,000 people losing coverage.
The Biden administration revoked most states’ permission to add work requirements to Medicaid.
ACA, or Obamacare, tax credits lower the cost of health insurance individuals can purchase on regulated, state-based health insurance exchanges.
Prior to the ACA, it was difficult for individuals to buy health insurance, because the majority of the US health system is based around employer-based insurance.
US advocacy groups are working hard to defend Obamacare and Medicaid against Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after House Republicans put forth a proposed $880 billion cut that would potentially leave 13 million Americans without health insurance.
Senate Republicans are divided over the House bill, which left the most contentious Republican proposals on the table. One senator referred to the attempt to take away healthcare as “morally wrong and politically suicidal.”. Some have called the cuts “anemic” and inadequate.
One of our patients recently told us that she was unable to work despite not having an official disability when she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. According to Erika Sward, assistant vice-president of National Advocacy for the American Lung Association, it was one of the few days she was able to leave the couch.
“It is incomprehensible that you would then have to defend your illness while you are battling for your life. “”.
Earlier this month, Sward joined colleagues from other disease-specific health advocacy groups in a press call, indicating growing opposition to a Republican bill that would cut everything from food and family assistance to healthcare. Republicans have been suggesting Medicaid cuts for months, but last week their plans were finally put into action.
Julie Nickson, director of federal relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, stated during a press conference that “this Medicaid fight is the fight we are all in – and have been in for a long time.”.
The White House budget proposal for the health department, which could drastically alter scientific research and healthcare in the United States, is the second of two Republican proposals, including the bill.
The House bill would mainly take money out of Medicaid by imposing work requirements, which, based on preliminary estimates from the congressional budget office, would save $715 billion. About 71 million Americans who are elderly, disabled, or have low incomes are covered by Medicaid, a public health insurance program.
Numerous studies have shown that work requirements fail to achieve their stated goal of encouraging people to enter the workforce, leaving them with a substantial administrative burden. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning organization, Republicans’ bill would require people to have a job before they could apply for Medicaid. This requirement would be particularly challenging for sick Americans to meet.
In a New York Times opinion piece, conservative Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri mocked the plan, demonstrating that even some people on the right question the approach.
Trump has made conflicting statements regarding his support for Medicaid, most notably by excluding it from the programs he pledged to defend during the campaign but then reaffirming his pledge as recently as April. In 2017, Republicans made a disastrous attempt to repeal Obamacare, which Trump later referred to as “mean.”.
In a passionate defense of the proposal, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers during a Capitol Hill hearing that “able-bodied [adults] who refuse to look for a job, to volunteer” are a threat to the health system.
Later, he claimed that “Medicaid is for poor children, for mothers, and it’s for the disabled”—a demographic that is far smaller than the millions of elderly people and low-wage workers who depend on the program.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare research organization, the majority of Medicaid recipients who are able to work do so. Work requirements have already been tested by some states; in Arkansas, for example, they resulted in the loss of coverage for 18,000 people. Most states’ authority to impose work requirements on Medicaid was revoked by the Biden administration.
Republicans’ desire to let the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium tax credits expire is coupled with the House’s proposal to reduce Medicaid. Obamacare tax credits, also known as ACA tax credits, reduce the cost of health insurance that people can buy on state-based, regulated exchanges.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, purchasing health insurance was challenging for individuals because employer-based insurance constituted the foundation of the US health system. According to the congressional budget office, these plans taken together could result in over 13 million people losing their insurance by 2034.
“We are aware that nearly 90% of Medicaid enrollees who are able to work are employed,” Sward stated, adding that work requirements “don’t address the bigger question in our county of people needing to be healthy to be able to work.”.
Last week, Republicans moved the bill out of committee. It must be passed out of the chamber by Memorial Day, according to Speaker Mike Johnson.
