The Senate Trumpcare working group of pasty white men has decided that they're going to follow the House's lead on destroying Medicaid.
As he exited the meeting Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) signaled that the Senate may pursue similarly deep cuts. "We've got to get it under control. Right now it's out of control," he said of Medicaid's budget. "It's going to be really out of control if we don't do something."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) echoed this sentiment, telling reporters: "I think we need reforms that put Medicaid on a long-term fiscally sustainable path, that constrains the exploding cost curve." […]
[E]ven purported defenders of Medicaid funding and the Medicaid expansion sounded open to—or at least resigned to—major cuts.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) stressed the importance of "not pulling the rug out from under people," but floated the idea that the AHCA's tax credits could "pick up some of these people" that lose Medicaid.
Portman admitted upon further questioning that the increased federal funding for the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare could be terminated by the Senate bill, but stressed that "there would also be a stabilization fund, and tax credits that aren't available currently."
So Senate Republicans are as adept as lying their asses off as House Republicans. Medicaid's budget is not out of control. In fact, it's extremely cost-effective, and spending per enrollee is higher in private insurance than in Medicaid.
Here's the other part that Republicans are steadfastly ignoring when they lie about the "exploding" costs of the program: two-thirds of that spending is going to the elderly in long-term care and to people with disabilities. It also disproportionately covers people with serious pre-existing health issues and chronic conditions. As this KFF issue brief says, it is a high-risk pool—one that actually works.
Looks like Portman and his colleague Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is also on this Senate death panel, are willing to join in on telling these lies, and kissing Medicaid goodbye in their states. But they both just won re-election. Maybe they're thinking no one back home will remember this in 2022. Those senators running in 2018? They might have a different perspective—but they're not on McConnell's death panel.