[ad_1]
Now the tables have turned. Democrats are picking on Trump, accusing him of not keeping his election promise not to touch the federal health care program for seniors.
The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a budget that would cut spending in Medicare as well as in Medicaid, which covers hundreds of billions of dollars low-income Americans, compared to the law in effect.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who plans to run for the Democratic nomination for 2020, told the crowd on Tuesday that Trump was cutting back on spending to fund the tax cuts that he had. he had given to the super rich, referring to the GOP's 2017 tax law.
"Exchange Medicare and Medicaid for tax breaks?", He said in a speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters. "How is it going to help people in this room or most of the people you live with, how is it going to help this country?"
It should be noted that Trump is offering even greater spending cuts for Medicare than in the past two years. In fact, his first budget barely touched the program.
Given this change, Medicare's spending would be $ 575 billion lower, said Marc Goldwein, First Vice Chair of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank.
Trump's budget also includes other provisions – such as medical liability reform and drug sector changes – that would indirectly affect Medicare and bring federal economies back to about $ 515 billion. said Goldwein.
The vast majority of changes to Medicare are reductions in payments to providers, who already have several groups of hospitals in arms.
"The cuts proposed today raise serious concerns about how hospitals and health systems can provide a safety net for their patients," said Rick Pollack, Executive Director of the American Hospital Association. in an article published after the publication of the draft budget.
Medicare currently pays hospital outpatient services more than physicians' offices for some services. The Trump administration wants to eliminate this differential. She also wants to slow the growth of payments for skilled nursing care, inpatient rehabilitation centers and home health services, said Tricia Neuman, director of the Medicare Policy Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation. .
The rhetoric goes back to the beginning of this decade when Republicans criticized former President Barack Obama for including similar cuts in service provider payments in the Affordable Care Act, claiming that he was hurting to the elderly.
Obama has also cut payments to private insurers in Medicare Advantage, which Trump does not do. His administration, in fact, is promoting Medicare Advantage, but there is also less evidence of the existence of significant federal overpayments in the program, Neuman said.
As for Medicaid, Trump is once again announcing huge spending cuts compared to the law in force, although it is difficult to decipher the exact amount because some are interconnected. But the budget also serves as a menu of long-standing Republican visions for the program, including the repeal of Medicaid's expansion and Obamacare grants and the lump sum award to States, called global subsidy.
In addition, it would limit federal support to the traditional Medicaid program by providing states with a block grant or fixed amount for each participant.
A new proposal is asking people in the Medicaid program of working age to work. The Trump administration promotes work mandates and has approved applications from eight states adding them to their programs. But his budget would require mandatory work requirements across the country, said Robin Rudowitz, associate director of the Medicaid program and uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
[ad_2]
Source link