Medicaid Cuts

The fiscal centerpiece of the Republican  “big, beautiful bill” now making its way through Congress is to take Medicaid away from jobless adults. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirement would save $300 billion over a decade and take health insurance from 7.6 million people. 

I know that we would all like to think that those 7.6 million people will find alternate health insurance. Unfortunately I suspect that's not going to happen.

So now when those 7.6 million people get sick they will go to the hospital emergency room. Hospitals, by law, cannot turn away uninsured patients. To make matters worse, uninsured patients may now be using hospital emergency rooms for ailments that would previously have been handled by their primary care doctors.

About 75%-80% of uninsured patient costs are paid for by a combination of state, local and federal dollars. The rest is absorbed by the hospital. 

So the costs aren't going away. It's a big shell game with the GOP basically shifting most of the costs to local governments, state governments and the hospitals. In some areas this may drive hospitals out of business which will just further confuse the issue.

This is another example of the GOP only looking at the savings side of the balance sheet without considering the cost side. These cuts could well turn out to be penny wise and pound foolish.