Health care advocates are pushing back against a new congressional Republican plan that would make cuts to Medicaid. In Michigan, that includes services for people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion plan that was adopted in 2013.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 2.6 million Michiganders are enrolled in Medicaid. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month — before the Sunday-night rollout of the GOP budget proposal — warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.
“It’s foundational to our healthcare system, whether you rely on Medicaid or access healthcare through another payer,” said Monique Stanton of the Michigan League for Public Policy, a human services advocacy organization.
Stanton said 1 in 4 Michiganders gets health coverage through Medicaid. She said that means hospitals and other providers rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open for people who come in with Medicaid, private coverage or no insurance at all.
Stanton said the 2014 Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion cut in half the amount of money that care providers were losing by treating people who could not afford to pay. She said that helped many rural hospitals and clinics keep operating.
“We did not necessarily have the rate of health care and hospital closures in other states – specifically states that did not have expanded Medicaid,” she said during a media call reacting to the GOP plan. “So, this could really have a specific impact in rural Michigan.”
Anthony Wright with the health care advocacy organization Families USA said the GOP plan would essentially push people off the Medicaid rolls “by putting paperwork and bureaucratic barriers in the way of people getting on and staying on health coverage.”
“This means asking many to re-enroll not just once but twice a year,” he said. “This means having more convoluted and complex requirements for determining eligibility and income that could otherwise be done easily and electronically. And this means work-reporting requirements even though the overwhelming majority of non-elderly, non-disabled adults on Medicaid are working, but simply at low-income jobs that don’t provide health coverage.”
While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.
“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.
But Democrats said the cuts are “shameful” and essentially amount to another attempt to repeal Obamacare.
“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage," said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said "hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes."
Small rallies are taking place across Michigan this week with groups protesting the proposed cuts.
Sue Hadden helped organize a noon-hour rally Monday in Chelsea, about 15 miles due west from Ann Arbor. She said the GOP plan would cut more than the wasteful spending they claim. “It affects jobs. It affects people’s livelihoods,” said Hadden, “It’s actually going to kill people if Medicaid is cut.”
Opponents hope to convince Republican lawmakers to spare the health care program from cuts.
But State Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) is not optimistic Medicaid will emerge without cuts. She believes Republicans are committed to cutting funding for the health care program.
“They’ll call it something else if they have to,” said Rheingans, “But this I do believe, we’re going to have at least that cut.”
Rheingans is worried Republican state lawmakers in Lansing will fight for even deeper cuts to Michigan’s Medicaid program.
Michigan House Republicans approved a budget resolution without any spending on Medicaid.
