This April is the 9th Medicaid Awareness Month, and Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are celebrating by driving up costs and stripping coverage away from women of all backgrounds. They have slashed over $1 trillion from Medicaid, forcing women to delay care, travel further to see an OB/GYN, take on crushing medical debt, and face worse health outcomes. Primary care, maternal care, reproductive care, and mental health care has been obliterated by Republicans in the name of cutting taxes for billionaires, leaving countless women without access to the vital care Medicaid provides, from wellness visits to cancer screenings to contraceptives to care for conditions that impact fertility.
Trump and Republicans Gutted Medicaid, Kicked Millions of Women Off Coverage, and Raised Their Health Care Costs. Thanks to Republicans cutting nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid in their big, ugly bill, 7.5 million Americans on Medicaid are losing health care, including seniors, moms, young women, and people with disabilities, all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations. Women make up the majority of adults covered by Medicaid. Medicaid covered nearly one in five women in 2023. In addition to ripping away health care coverage from millions, the big, ugly bill will soon impose a sick tax on over 20 million people who rely on Medicaid, hitting them with an average of $1,650 in new bills each year.
Trump’s Medicaid Cuts Are Shuttering Maternity Wards And Exacerbating America’s Maternal Health Crisis. The United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income country, and instead of addressing the crisis, Republicans cut funding for the program that finances care for over 40 percent of births, including the majority in several Republican-controlled states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women across the country rely on Medicaid for prenatal visits, ultrasounds, and screenings for conditions such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and postpartum depression, but face loss of coverage thanks to the big, ugly bill. Over 800 hospitals, nursing homes, maternity wards, and other critical providers nationwide have shuttered, are at risk of closing, or have cut essential services, forcing more Americans to travel further for maternity care and face longer wait times in emergency rooms to get care for complications. Republicans put countless moms and babies farther away from the care they need at a time when 35 percent of counties already lack birthing hospitals and birth centers. GOP cuts have already shuttered over 30 labor and delivery units and put over 140 at risk of closing their doors since the passage of the big, ugly bill. Medicaid cuts have also stopped moms from having the support they need through childbirth. States are dropping programs to fund and reimburse doulas who assist moms through labor and provide support throughout their pregnancy. Moms nationwide are being left without the care they need due to Medicaid cuts.
Trump Is Ripping Away Financial Compensation From Women Caring for Children, Parents, and Relatives With Disabilities. Over 60 percent of caregivers are women, and nearly half are part of the “sandwich generation” that is taking care of young children at home and their aging parents. Medicaid’s long-term services and support (LTSS) programs play a critical role in compensating caregivers for the care they provide. 47 states and the District of Columbia have programs to provide payment to caregivers through Medicaid waivers or state plan options. These generally come in the form of hourly wages or daily stipends comparable to those of other direct care providers. These programs are commonly available to people caring for those with intellectual or developmental disabilities, seniors, and people with physical disabilities. However, Republicans passed the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, which has resulted in reductions in these programs. The implementation of these cuts will be devastating to families across the country that rely on LTSS programs to make ends meet while caring for an older or disabled family member.
Republicans Gutted Vital Reproductive Health Services. Nearly 200 Planned Parenthood health centers across 24 states are at risk of closing due to GOP cuts to Medicaid. Since the big, ugly bill passed, over 20 Planned Parenthood clinics across 11 states have already closed, cutting off communities of women from vital health care. Medicaid covers 1 in 5 women of reproductive age who rely on the program’s family planning services, including contraceptives, gynecologic exams and testing, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. This coverage helps women of color in particular. Black women are 71 percent more likely to die from cervical cancer than their white counterparts, and Black and Latina women make up 80 percent of women living with HIV or AIDS. Some states also require their Medicaid plans to provide diagnostic services for infertility. While only New York requires their Medicaid state plans to cover fertility treatments, Medicaid covers treatments for other health conditions that can impact fertility, such as thyroid medications, fibroid surgery, and endometriosis or other gynecologic abnormalities that can cause pelvic pain or abnormal bleeding. Several states also cover fertility preservation for people whose medical treatments, such as chemotherapy, may cause infertility. Medicaid’s role is essential to ensure equitable access to these treatments, especially for families of color.
Republican Work Requirements Will Make Health Care Harder to Obtain. The big, ugly bill imposes work reporting requirements on every American in the Medicaid expansion population. Work reporting requirements have been shown to be ineffective in helping people find jobs, obtain training, or overcome access barriers to maintaining employment. In reality, these requirements just create more bureaucratic red tape that prevents the very people Medicaid was intended to help from accessing health care. A majority of people in the Medicaid expansion population are also already working. 9 in 10 adults with health care coverage through Medicaid expansion are currently employed or meet work exemption criteria. These requirements will also hurt women who typically fall into caregiving roles. In 2023, nearly 20 percent of women who did not work reported caregiving responsibilities as their reason. Six in ten women enrolled in Medicaid worked full or part-time. According to the Urban Institute, implementing work reporting requirements will cause 5 million people to lose health care coverage.