The fallout from Donald Trump and Republicans’ budget bill is happening now, raising costs on millions of families and upending the entire health care system. For years, Republicans have been trying to slash Medicaid and dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Last month, they passed the largest cuts to health care in American history. The bill rips away health care from more than 15 million people, increasing costs on working-class families trying to make ends meet, all to give billionaires and big companies another tax break.
This health care emergency will hit working-class Americans the hardest, stripping more people of their health insurance than live in the state of Pennsylvania. The consequences of these cuts will have ripple effects continuing for generations. Upwards of 30 percent of all young people and 1.3 million older adults are at risk or estimated to lose health coverage. On top of this, the Trump-GOP cuts will result in massive economic setbacks, with over 1.2 million job losses expected, which in turn will throw even more people into health coverage precarity. Trump and Republicans are leaving entire communities behind as they prioritize tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.
With lawmakers headed home for August recess, Republicans continue to lie about the health care cuts as they explain their vote for this bill to their constituents. Protect Our Care’s Trump-GOP Health Care Emergency campaign is dedicated to holding Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress accountable this August. The campaign will feature the following theme weeks:
- August 3 – 9: The Trump-GOP Health Care Emergency: War on Your Health Care
- August 10 – 16: The Trump-GOP Health Care Emergency: Higher Costs for Families
- August 17 – 23: The Trump-GOP Health Care Emergency: Ripping Coverage Away from Millions
- August 24 – 30: The Trump-GOP Health Care Emergency: Hospitals in Crisis
By the Numbers
- Medicaid cuts will kick at least 10 million off their health care plans. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that the Trump-GOP $900 billion cuts to Medicaid, the largest in the program’s history, will result in between 10 and 15 million Americans losing health coverage.
- Around 4.2 million Americans will lose their coverage due to high premiums. Republicans have chosen to increase premiums for over 22 million Americans, including 5 million small business owners. Around one in six people who see these premium increases will not be able to afford the new costs and will lose their health insurance entirely.
- Another 900,000 people will lose their health coverage due to a new ACA marketplace rule implemented by Trump. The Trump-GOP health care agenda increases costs for everyone, as well as making it more difficult for people to even get health coverage. Onerous marketplace changes implemented by Trump have made it so that not only is health care more expensive, but simply enrolling is more difficult.
Imposing work requirements will needlessly kick people off their health coverage and increase bureaucratic costs. Work requirements only make it harder for people to qualify for Medicaid, slash benefits, and will potentially deny 18.5 million people access to health care, so they can fund more tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. The Trump-GOP implementation of work requirements has one goal: Increase the red tape hard-working families must go through to obtain affordable health care.
Higher deductibles mean fewer people can afford their health coverage. Trump’s new Marketplace sabotage rule allows insurance companies to offer plans with higher deductibles and higher out-of-pocket costs by adjusting the percentage of income that families are expected to pay for benchmark health coverage and the maximum out-of-pocket limit each year. A family with job-based health insurance could face up to $900 more in annual spending as their out-of-pocket maximums increase, and millions of families with job-based insurance could see their premiums rise by as much as $485 due to the costs of uncompensated care on health care facilities. These costs are unsustainable for Americans, a quarter of whom have no emergency savings at all.
Legal immigrants will be kicked off Medicaid. The Trump-GOP cuts to Medicaid completely eliminates federal funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program provided to immigrants living lawfully in the United States. Vital health coverage will be torn away from refugees, and certain victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking.
Increasing bureaucratic red tape will result in many Americans losing coverage for nothing but administrative reasons. New rules imposed by Trump and the GOP require enrollees in Medicaid expansion to reapply every six months. Studies show that a similar rule caused nearly 20 percent of Medicaid enrollees to lose coverage. By now forcing people to prove their eligibility twice every year, more Americans who are eligible for Medicaid expansion will fall through the cracks and lose their health care entirely.