G.O.P. Plans to Cut Medicaid Would Save Billions but Leave More Uninsured, Budget Office Says

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : The analysis considered a few other policy options: One would change the structure of Medicaid from one in which the program pays for beneficiary medical bills to one in which states received a fixed payment for each person.
48% : Another option, which would lower federal spending on Medicaid beneficiaries who are part of the Obamacare expansion of the program, would save the government $710 billion over a decade, but cause 2.4 million more people to become uninsured.
48% : The budget blueprint passed by Republican majorities in both chambers asks the House committee that oversees Medicaid -- which provides health coverage to around 72 million Americans who are poor or disabled -- to find $880 billion in cuts, a difficult target to meet without including major program changes.
46% : In every scenario, the reductions in Medicaid enrollment are larger than the projected increases in the number of people without insurance, because the budget office assumes some people currently covered by Medicaid would get insurance another way.
46% : All of the budget office calculations assume states would respond to changes in federal policy by making their own changes to their programs.
43% : A previous budget office estimate suggested such a policy could reduce federal spending by around $100 billion, but that policy would likely overlap with the others, meaning the totals cannot be added together.
34% : "This analysis from the nonpartisan, independent C.B.O. is straightforward: The Republican plan for health care means benefit cuts and terminated health insurance for millions of Americans who count on Medicaid," said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Finance Committee chairman.
30% : One option, to limit the way states use a tax loophole to increase federal spending on Medicaid, would save $668 billion but cause 3.9 million more Americans to go without health insurance.

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