US House Republicans voted this week to cut Medicaid by $880 billion to pay for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. These cuts would affect 800,000 Pennsylvanians.
All nine of Pennsylvania’s Republican congressmen voted to cut Medicaid, a federal program that provides health care coverage to many children, the disabled, the elderly and lower income Americans, by close to $880 billion through 2034 on Monday in order to pay for extending President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the country’s ultra wealthy.
An analysis put together by the Center for American Progress estimates that Pennsylvania would lose $34.36 billion in funding during that time, and it would affect close to 800,000 Pennsylvanians.
“Republicans are cheering the passage of their extreme budget resolution that betrays the middle class,” Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia) said in a statement following the passage of the US House Republican budget.
“Their bill will impose pain and suffering on tens of millions of hardworking Americans — cutting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, all to fund extravagant giveaways for billionaires like Elon Musk.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the bottom 40% of Americans would be worse off if these cuts make it through the US Senate, while the bottom 20% could see their incomes reduced by 7.4%.
“The negative impacts of Medicaid cuts on Pennsylvania families would be similar to but slightly bigger than those on U.S. families: the poorest fifth of Pennsylvania families would see their incomes decline by 8% and second-poorest-fifth families by 1.8%,” an analysis by the Keystone Research Center stated.
Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania are worried how these Medicaid cuts would trickle down throughout the commonwealth.
These cuts could potentially cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $1 billion through the rest of the year.
“It would require us to redesign our whole Medicaid program moving forward,” State Sen. Jay Costa told CBS Pittsburgh.
