The Trump Administration Continues to Sabotage Health Care for Millions
Anne Marie Bonds
January 31, 2020
On Thursday, the Trump administration announced that they would accept applications from states that want to set up a Medicaid block grant. Under this new guidance, states will have established spending caps on the amount that they receive in federal funding for Medicaid, likely resulting in drastic cuts to Medicaid beneficiaries across the nation.
Medicaid’s current coverage guarantees health care that is always available when you need it most. People who have fallen on hard times can enroll in Medicaid and receive a core set of services, no matter how many must enroll into the system. By creating block grants for Medicaid, the Trump administration is capping the amount the government can spend on care for those on Medicaid, putting beneficiaries at risk of losing their health care coverage.
Trump’s plan to create Medicaid block grants will ensure that working families who are currently covered by Medicaid will endure cuts to their benefits and services. This will cause long wait times at the doctor’s office for the poorest in our nation, and it will put 70 million people at risk of going bankrupt before affording their desperately needed care.
This proposal is just the next attempt at destroying our nation’s Medicaid system. With Trumps’ previous attacks on Medicaid through work requirements and his repeated attempts to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, the President has disregarded the lives and dignity of the poorest in our nation.
Medicaid block grants are just the newest attack on low-income families by the Trump administration.