Go to Robert Reich's site for a concise and cogent analysis of that bill. On Medicaid he says:
"States would receive an amount of money per Medicaid recipient that appears to grow as healthcare costs rise.
But starting in 2025, the payments would be based on how fast costs rise in the economy as a whole.
Yet medical costs are rising faster than overall costs. They’ll almost surely continue to do so – as America’s elderly population grows, and as new medical devices, technologies, and drugs prolong life. Which means that after 2025, Medicaid coverage will shrink.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute estimates that between 2025 and 2035, about $467 billion less will be spent on Medicaid than would be spent than if Medicaid funding were to keep up with the expected rise in medical costs.
The states would have to make up the difference, but many won’t want to or be able to."
One point I would like to make concerning this issue; I call this bill the "Make Room for Daddy" legislation which is a thinly disguised piece of misogyny. By cutting Medicaid, which crosses the entire population, one particular effect would be to either bankrupt generations of families or force a child or their spouse to stay home and take care of an aging, ill parent. How? To get a parent with a debilitating disease into proper care, a family now needs to go through pyrotechnics depending on whether both parents are alive, their condition, what's in the bank etc. Before a nursing home will take someone they will demand up to six months minimum payment from the family at a cost of anywhere from $7,000.00 to $12,000.00 a month. If the well parent is still alive they are allowed to remain in their home, but the parents' assets must be spent down. If the other parent has passed then the estate goes to the state. Then Medicaid kicks in to finance the remainder of the ill parents remaining days in care or until hospice. With these Medicaid dollars gone and no longer available for long term care, many families will not be able to afford nursing home care, necessitating the children to intervene by paying for in home care or by taking "daddy" into their homes, where the reality is that someone needs to quit a job and stay home to care for that parent. Medicaid pays for in home care also so kiss that goodbye. This will be a devastating reality for most, if not nearly all, middle class Americans, white, black and Latino. WOW. Talk about disasters. Upended living situations, loss if income, reduced tax base, stress factors. Are the Republicans kidding?
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