Campaign Action
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has asked the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate the long-term impacts of the Medicaid cuts, which should once and for all debunk the ongoing Republican lie that cuts aren't cuts. Wyden, as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, asks the CBO to "examine and make public an analysis of the Senate Republican health bill's Medicaid cuts beyond the 10 year budget window."
"The American public deserves to see the full extent of pain this bill will bring to people across the country who count on Medicaid as a lifeline." Wyden said. "I'm hopeful that once my Republican colleagues understand the true implications of this dangerous legislation, they will reject it and work with Democrats to improve America's health care system." […]
In the bill, known as the "Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017," Medicaid becomes subject to a cap in spending beginning in 2020 that would not keep up with medical costs, pushing states to raise taxes or cut care from vulnerable populations including children, Americans with disabilities, and seniors who rely on Medicaid for long-term care. The growth rate of the cap becomes even more restrictive after 2024, two years before the end of the traditional scoring window. An analysis of the longer-term impacts will give a more complete and accurate view of the consequences of these caps on Americans' lives.
Republicans—including HHS Secretary Tom Price and popular vote loser Donald Trump—have been peddling bogus charts to show that really, they're not cutting Medicaid at all, ignoring and hoping we'll all be ignoring it too, the facts of an increasing population, an aging population, inflation in healthcare costs. You know, reality.
Not that they're not above either dismissing or spinning a CBO report away, but they're going to have a harder time answering the bad headlines they're going to get.
The end of Medicaid as we know it? No exaggeration. The Senate version of Trumpcare has worse long-term cuts to Medicaid than the House version, to pay for tax breaks to the wealthy. Call your Republican senator at (202) 224-3121, and give them a piece of your mind. Tell us how it went.