As the largest health insurance program in the country, Medicaid is an crucial pillar in our health system, which offers more than 70 million people for health care.
The Affordable Care Act has expanded Medicaid to cover more working Americans who do not do enough to make a private cover. Now 40 states, both red and blue, expanded, saved life, keep hospitals open, save states money and improve the well -being of countless Americans.
Medicaid is jointly financed by the Federal Government and the States and supported by 76% of the Americans. It covers one of five Americans, including children, mothers, seniors, colors, rural Americans and people with disabilities.
Every family knows someone who relies on Medicaid.
In West Virginia, 516,500 of our friends, family members and neighbors are covered by Medicaid – including:
- 49,000 seniors
- 196,000 children
- 86,000 people with disabilities
Why do the Republicans plan to reduce trillions of Medicaid in order to spend the tax benefits of 4.6 trillion dollars on the prosperous?
The Republicans in the congress make three proposals that would dramatically reduce federal financing for Medicaid: block grants, per capita upper limits and the reduction of Medicaid -Matching rates. The federal government currently pays between 50% and 77% of the medical costs of the participants and more for certain high-quality services.
These suggestions would blow at least a 235 million US dollars Hole in the state budget in West Virginia and do not leave tens of thousands of people insured.
Medicaid also helps with the financing of lural hospitals by ensuring that more patients can pay for their care. Rural hospitals in Medicaid expansion states such as West Virginia are 62% less likely. In 2023, over 600 rural hospitals were at risk, almost all of which were not in the non-expansion states. If the congress decreases the expansion of Medicaid, more rural hospitals will be forced to close their doors.
Medicaid is the largest individual payer for long-term care, maternity and psychiatric services. Almost a third of adults have received maternity care, domestic health Care or care for domestic care through medicaid. Almost every fifth adult across the country, who has to deal with mental illnesses, has access to care through Medicaid. If the congress has its way, millions of Americans lose access to crucial care.
The congress also considers to impose so -called work requirements. However, studies show that the requirements for work reporting cost money and do not improve people’s ability to find work.
A huge majority of adult medicaid beneficiaries who can already work. After a 2024 analysisOver 80% of adults working at work for Medicaid worked as a family supervisor or attended school.
Suggestions in which individuals regularly document and report, report the work or at school lead to authorized people fall through the cracks. ArkansaThe only state that implemented the requirements for reporting on Medicaid work for Medicaid -favored lost health insurance within six months.
The researchers found that this loss of coverage was generally not due to the fact that people could not comply with the work requirements, but that they found the reporting process itself – the bureaucratic bureaucracy – confusing and hard to meet or that were not aware of, as a whole, requirements . Of those who had lost their health insurance due to the job reporting requirements in Arkansas, half the earnest problems to pay for medical bills, 56% delayed the requirements of the healthcare system due to costs and 64% delayed medication.
What does that mean? Less dollars mean fewer resources for families with low incomes, people with disabilities, pregnant women and others who rely on medicaid for health insurance. The state will lose financing for all those people who lose reporting. Although these poorer states spend fewer per inhabitant for Medicaid, their reimbursement rate of the federal government is relatively high and the effects of federal cuts are therefore great.
The shortening of Medicaid will keep the health care of hard -working families all over West Virginia away instead of helping them – they earn better and it is in our power to do this.
