With Congress staring down a March 14 deadline to approve a new spending bill, health advocates are fearing drastic cuts to Medicaid.
Congress last week took the first step in kickstarting talks by passing a budget framework along party lines. It calls for about $2 trillion in spending cuts.
While the early version of the budget does not lay out where those cuts will be made, some experts believe the goal can be achieved only through cuts to Medicaid due to the program's large costs.
Medicaid offers last-ditch coverage for roughly 80 million low-income and disabled Americans, including millions of children. It's jointly funded by states and the federal government. But it's one of the largest sources of federal spending, costing about $600 billion per year.
One leading advocate fears some proposals are calling to potentially gut Medicaid. She believes not only would people die without that coverage, but also Americans covered through other means likely would foot the costs with higher hospital billing charges.
"When they have lots of patients that are not paying for their care, what they do is pass those costs on to people who can pay for their care," said Dr. Avenel Joseph, interim execituve VP with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "So it means everyone else not on Medicaid who has private health insurance will be paying as part of their premiums or out-of-pocket costs as part of their deductable and co-pays in order to bolster the health care system"
Some Republican lawmakers are justifying potential Medicaid cuts by suggesting it's a magnet for fraud. Democrats counter that by calling for more oversight.
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Meanwhile, other Republicans are now listening to their constiuents' concerns, especially in rural areas where experts say the lack of Medicaid would likely hit home the hardest.
Last week, President Donald Trump said lawmakers would not touch Medicaid funding. With California among the states with the largest number of Medicaid enrollees, there's significant interest in how it all plays out.
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