Potential Cuts to Medicaid Could Impact Health Insurance for Many
In a recent interview with Fox Business, Georgia Representative Austin Scott suggested that House Republicans are considering reducing the federal funding allocated to states for Medicaid expansion. Such a move could potentially leave tens of thousands of Americans without health insurance.
Scott explained the funding shift: “When the Dems expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they made that percentage match 90-10, so the federal government is paying 90% of the Medicaid expansion,” he said. “What we have talked about is moving that 90% level of the expansion back to the more traditional levels of 50% to approximately 80%.”
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, initially encouraged states to expand Medicaid by having the federal government cover up to 90% of the costs. This initiative allowed millions of uninsured adults to gain health coverage.
Currently, ten states with Republican leadership, including Georgia and Wisconsin, have not expanded Medicaid. Notably, seven of these states are among the top 20 with the highest rates of uninsured residents.
Furthermore, twelve more states, including Arizona and North Carolina, have trigger laws that would end Medicaid expansion if federal funding falls below 90%, as proposed by Scott.
Research from the Center for American Progress, disclosed to The Hill, indicates that scaling back Medicaid expansion could result in over 34,000 additional deaths annually.
Currently, approximately 72 million Americans rely on Medicaid for their health coverage.
Scott’s suggestion is under consideration for an upcoming reconciliation bill being developed by House Republicans. This bill seeks to reduce $1.5 trillion in federal spending, partly to fund tax cut extensions for the wealthiest individuals.
Economists caution that achieving such budgetary goals would likely necessitate significant cuts to Medicaid and other social safety programs.
Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark, the deputy leader of the House Democrats, criticized Scott’s proposal. In a statement on X, she remarked: “The GOP is getting ready to take away your health care. This is just overturning the ACA by another name and for one purpose: to hand more money to billionaires.”
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