Trumpcare will cut medicaid to millions of poor Americans

Before, Medicaid provided insurance almost exclusively to poor families on welfare, pregnant women, and the low-income elderly and disabled on Supplemental Security Income. Today, in part due to Obamacare’s expansion of the program, Medicaid covers more than 73 million struggling Americans. Ryan’s AHCA gradually ends funding for the Medicaid expansion and allocates Medicaid funding to states based on the number of Medicaid beneficiaries rather than the actual cost of covering them as is currently the case. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 14 million fewer Americans will be covered by the program by 2026 as a result. That number could balloon if the work requirements and block-granting currently being contemplated on the Hill make it into the final bill.
The prospect of so many being dropped from Medicaid and states footing a much larger share of Medicaid’s bills has spooked more moderate Republicans across the country—the majority of states where the federal government currently spends more than average on state Medicaid programs are deep red and 16 states with GOP governors took up the Medicaid expansion. It remains to be seen if the chance to fulfill Paul Ryan’s lifelong dream of denying the poor government insurance might tug at their heartstrings.