Ending Medicare: it's the Republican version of going for the gold. And the race has been grueling. Raucous town hall after raucous town hall, the sobering electoral defeat in the heavily-Republican NY-26, and poll after poll after poll continue to show that their plan to turn Medicare into Coupon Care is less popular than a root canal, especially among seniors.
Republicans have had their eyes on this prize for a long time. This is the party that had fought tooth and nail against Medicare at its inception and has fought everyday since to hand the trust fund over to their friends in the private insurance industry. The Ryan scheme is latest vehicle for ending Medicare as we know it, and it certainly won't be the last. Their race to abolish Medicare continues full steam, but, in addition, they may be turning their attention to what they perceive to be a respectable silver medal: starving Medicaid to death. According to The Hill:
Republicans are demanding massive cuts to the state-federal health program for low-income Americans as part of negotiations on increasing the debt ceiling.
There's real reason to be alarmed by the GOP's proposed "block granting" of the health care program that provides coverage for low income families, children and senior long-term care. Block granting is a nice way of describing gutting $1.4 trillion from the program that keeps millions of seniors in the nursing home. According to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report:
Because the Ryan plan would require such deep cuts in federal Medicaid funding, it would inevitably result in less coverage for nursing home residents and shift more of the cost of nursing home care to elderly beneficiaries and their families. A sharp reduction in the quality of nursing home care would be virtually inevitable, due to the large reduction that would occur in the resources made available to pay for such care.
Seniors could easily see long waiting lists for long-term care in their states. Others just would be priced out of nursing homes all together, meaning the responsibility falls solely on their family or non-medical professionals. These reductions would be immediate, meaning those currently receiving these benefits, those 65 years old and older, would absolutely feel the pain.
Republicans think at the end of the day they're going to go home with a W of sorts -- a consolation prize for going for the Holy Grail on the conservative wish list. But, despite what the conservative pundits and think tanks may have told these Republicans, Medicaid is damn near as popular of a program as Medicare, and every bit as golden. Last month's Kaiser Health Tracking Poll found that 60% of people say they want to keep Medicaid as it is, with minimum standards set by the federal government. In fact, "the poll calls into question the conventional wisdom that cuts to the program will be more easily accepted than cuts to Medicare. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they favored "no reductions" to Medicaid, while 59 percent said the same of Medicare. And Kaiser's research shows a much larger majority oppose the House-passed plan for Medicaid than Medicare."
On a more micro level, according to California Healthline, "one Kaiser Family Foundation study projected that California would be forced to cut health coverage for up to 8.8 million residents, and the state would take a $78 billion hit in federal funds over the next decade." Almost nine million more residents without health care? And what options would they have to obtain coverage if the Republicans get their way? Where could they realistically turn to get coverage?
As the debate over how to prevent defaulting on our government's debt goes forward, Republicans will attempt to hold the global economy hostage in order to kick seniors, low-income seniors and people with disabilities off of Medicaid. And I have little sympathy for what lies ahead in town halls and polling stations for Congressional Republicans when they do.