If there’s one thing this writer has heard nonstop since casting his first vote 43 years ago, it’s the old saw that Republicans will cut entitlements, whether they be Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. As an argument, it has apparently worked well enough to keep the programs growing, despite their increasing impact on the federal budget deficit.
In the most recent GOP attempt to extend the Trump tax cuts and rein in overall spending — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) — Democrats have latched onto a Congressional Budget Office estimate that predicts 7.6 million fewer will be insured by 2034. Given the partisan lean and inaccuracy of those who work at the “nonpartisan” CBO, one could expect inaccuracy. “The agency’s black-box models are often wrong because they ignore, or misjudge, how government incentives influence behavior,” The Wall Street Journal pointed out. “[The CBO] estimated in 2018 that the uninsured population would grow by three million to 35 million, owing in part to the GOP’s elimination of the ObamaCare penalty for not having insurance. Only about 27 million are currently uninsured. On the other hand, CBO has grossly underestimated the growth in Medicaid spending and the cost of Democrats’ sweetened ACA subsidies. Medicaid now costs 20% more, and the ACA subsidies nearly double what CBO projected in 2022 because the Biden Administration turned both into open buffets.”
So what are the Republicans really plotting? The biggest change is one that would emulate 1990s welfare reform — requiring able-bodied recipients to put in 80 hours a month, either as work, volunteer service, or education. The other major change would be to eject illegal aliens off the Medicaid rolls, which they shouldn’t be on in the first place, but to no one’s surprise, several Democrat-run states had added them anyway.
As Hot Air’s David Strom notes, “In principle, denying government benefits to illegal aliens and, let’s be honest, deadbeats is hardly immoral. The United States should not become a magnet for medical tourism, just as we shouldn’t be in the business of providing free room and board to every Jose, Mohammed, and Fatma who crosses our border.”
These ideas made The Washington Post see red, as the paper published a lengthy screed criticizing the Trump administration’s implementation of work requirements for government assistance.
Additional controversy has come from the Sunday shows and town halls where Republicans have been tripped up by offhand comments made in response to constituents. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst caught flak for responding to a leftist at a town hall claiming the OBBBA would be tax cuts for the rich but kill the poor with Medicaid cuts by saying, “We all are going to die, for heaven’s sake.” Adding to the misconception of GOP tone-deafness, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “The people who are complaining that these people are going to lose their coverage because they can’t fulfill the paperwork — this is minor enforcement of this policy, and it follows common sense.” In short, Republicans don’t care, we’re told.
Democrats, on the other hand, don’t seem to have faith in their constituents to either fill out paperwork or fulfill a modest work requirement. “This is what this legislation does, that they’re trying to do. They’re going to throw poor people away,” whined Senator Raphael Warnock, who claimed the work requirement put in by his state of Georgia, “is very good at kicking people off of their healthcare.”
Again, though, Medicaid is “intended for young, you know, single pregnant women and the disabled and the elderly,” as Johnson argues. “But what’s happening right now is you have a lot of people, for example, young men, able-bodied workers, who are on Medicaid. They’re not working when they can.” That’s the part that needs to be addressed. Just like states are beginning to crack down on SNAP benefits by limiting their use for junk food items, which are unhealthy and promote poor choices, so should they crack down on a society hooked on handouts.
With the Democrats now taking the side of illegal aliens and their rioting allies in Los Angeles, the Medicaid argument has been pushed to the back burner for the moment. But the climbing costs of Medicaid and Medicare certainly should give pause to the consideration of the Democrats’ dream of Medicare for All, and provide a more convincing argument that prudent cuts can and should be made to these programs.
Medicaid is supposed to be a safety net until circumstances improve, not a comfy bed and way of life.
