Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee released its bill text for the Republican tax scam, which includes even steeper cuts to Medicaid to finance tax cuts for the wealthy. The GOP’s proposed plan will kick more than 16 million Americans off their health care. The Senate bill is far worse than the House-passed bill. It makes the work requirements even more onerous by including parents of teenagers and by making even deeper cuts to hospitals. No one will be spared under the GOP’s scheme to make the largest cuts to Medicaid in history. Not only will older adults, people with disabilities, children, and working families lose coverage, but seniors will be thrown out of nursing homes, rural hospitals will shutter, and people with serious medical conditions like cancer will be forced to stop treatment. The Republican bill remains widely unpopular, while support for Medicaid continues to grow.
The New York Times: Senate Bill Would Make Deep Cuts to Medicaid, Setting Up Fight With House
- “While the House measure would add a new work requirement to Medicaid for childless adults, the Senate proposal would expand its application to the parents of older children. It also would crack down even harder than the House bill on strategies that many states have developed to tax medical providers and pay them higher prices for Medicaid services.”
The Washington Post: Senate Overhauls Trump’s Tax Bill, Setting Up Brawl With The House
- “The Senate Finance Committee released its proposals Monday afternoon, and they are some of the most controversial in the mammoth legislation. The panel is responsible for codifying trillions of dollars in tax cuts and pays for them largely by slashing Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income individuals.”
STAT: Medicaid Cuts Could Result In More Than 16,000 Preventable Deaths Annually
- “Republican lawmakers in Congress are pushing for cuts to the taxpayer-funded health insurance program, used by more than 70 million low-income Americans, as a way to help offset the cost of extending, and adding, to Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — primarily benefitting wealthy Americans — that are expiring in 2025. The Senate will consider the proposals in the House bill and are expected to suggest changes soon.”
Fox News: ‘It’s Wrong’: Hawley Warns Senate GOP Not To Boot Americans From Medicaid In Trump Megabill
- “‘These are not people who are sitting around, these are people who are working,’ he said. ‘They’re on Medicaid because they cannot afford private health insurance, and they don’t get it on the job. And I just think it’s wrong to go to those people and say, “Well, you know, we know you’re doing the best, we know that you’re working hard, but we’re going to take away your healthcare access,” he continued.’”
Common Dreams: Senate GOP Dumps Gasoline on ‘Five-Alarm Fire’ by Proposing Even Deeper Medicaid Cuts
- “Senate Republicans on Monday proposed cutting Medicaid even more aggressively than their House colleagues to help offset the cost of trillions of dollars in tax breaks that would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.”
- “Leslie Dach, chair of the advocacy group Protect Our Care, said in a statement that ‘this bill was already a five-alarm fire for American healthcare, and Senate Republicans have just poured gasoline on it.’”
Huffpost: Senate Republicans Unveil Their Version Of Trump’s Tax And Medicaid Cuts
- “House and Senate Republicans agree on the big picture: an extension of the temporary tax cuts Republicans enacted during Trump’s first term in 2017. Unless Congress takes action, those cuts will expire at the end of the year. The cost of those tax cuts would be partly offset by cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”