By Bernard Wolfson | KFF Health News
In 2017, the Republicans who controlled Congress tried mightily to slash federal spending on Medicaid, the government-funded health program covering low-income families and individuals.
California, like other states, depends heavily on federal dollars to provide care for its poorest residents. Analyzes at the time showed the GOP’s proposals would cut Medicaid funds flowing from Washington by tens of billions of dollars, perhaps even more, forcing state officials to rethink the scope of Medi-Cal.
But the GOP efforts ended in failure — iconically crystallized by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, sick with terminal brain cancer, issuing his decisive early-morning thumbs-down.
More than seven years later, here we go again.
With Donald Trump preparing to reenter the White House, bolstered once more by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, expectations are high that the GOP will quickly resurrect its long-desired goal of cutting Medicaid.
Republicans want to finance large tax cuts, and the GOP platform under Trump pledges not to touch Social Security or Medicare. To be sure, that’s not set in stone. But for now, as my KFF colleagues have noted, Medicaid looks an awful lot like low-hanging fruit. (KFF is a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.)
Health officials in California and across the nation are on edge about the possibility of large-scale Medicaid cuts being enacted as soon as next year. Such cuts would have an outsize impact in the Golden State, whose 14.7 million Medi-Cal enrollees exceed the entire populations of all but three other US states. Medi-Cal provides health coverage for over 40% of the state’s children and pays for nearly 40% of births. It is a crucial source of funding for safety net hospitals and community clinics.
And over 60% of its $161 billion budget this year comes via Washington.
The potential for big federal cuts to Medicaid may have been a factor in Democratic Gov….
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