Washington (AP) – President Lyndon B. Johnson on this day in 1965 Law signed by law It launched Medicaid and created the US Healthcare Safety Net for millions of low-income Americans who would become one of the best achievements of his national heritage.
A year ago he did the same for a food stamp. First Presidential Order For the development of “Positive Food and Nutrition Programs for All Americans.”
This summer Pen strokeStarted by President Donald Trump Carve them behind.
Republican Party Large tax and expenditure invoices Not only $4.5 trillion, but also delivered Tax credit But some of the most important changes for Americans A groundbreaking safety net program In their history. This trade-off will cut more than $1 trillion from federal healthcare and food aid over a decade by imposing work requirements primarily on those receiving assistance and moving certain federal costs to states.
Although Congressional Republicans argue that trim is necessary to entitle and prevent federal programs that have grown for decades. Rising federal deficitsthey are also moving towards long-standing GOP goals. Federal government reduction And the services it offers.
“We are making the first changes to the welfare state in our generation.” House Speaker Mike Johnson I said it recently Podcast interview.
As Tax credits and spending reduces the law Start taking shape and unlock the uncertainty of a new era of safety net programs Millions of people Communities across the country have become dependent on political influences.
The big safety net will be changed first
Polling Show Most US adults Don’t think the government is spending it on the program. Americans are widely helping to increase or maintain existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to polls from. Associated Press-NORC Civil Service Research Center.
Local governments know how they adhere to the new landscape, calculate whether they need to raise their own taxes to cover costs, cut their budgets elsewhere, or cut the aid provided to Americans.
“The cuts are really big, really broad and really damaging,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Washington Institute’s Budget and Policy Priorities Center.
“As a result, millions of people have lost their healthcare coverage,” she said. “Millions of people are losing food aid, and the end result is higher poverty, more difficulties.”
At the same time, certain people who receive assistance, including teenagers up to the age of 64 and elderly American parents, are Work, engage in classes or provide community service 80 hours a month to meet new requirements.
Everything was said, Non-partisan Congressional Budget Bureau estimate 10 million more It’s finished without health insurance. Approximately 3 million fewer people will participate in the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
“People are really worried about what this means for financial health,” said Mark Ritaco, Chief Public Officer of the National Association of County, who held the annual meeting the week after Trump signed the bill.
The organization is urging senators to delay the start date of Medicaid changes and hopes that further conversations with legislators will not take hold of some of them before. Questions were swirling at the meeting.
“We’re talking about Medicaid and Snap. These are people’s lives and livelihoods,” Ritaco said.
GOP Buildings Reduce Healthcare and Food Aid
Republicans argue that the law follows Trump’s oath Don’t touch Medicaid As changes root out Waste, fraud, abuse. A memo from the House GOP campaign division encourages lawmakers to focus on the popularity of new work requirements and restrictions on certain immigrant benefits.
“These safety nets are aimed at a small number of people, including single elderly people, disabled people, and young pregnant women,” the House Speaker said on “Benny Show.”
He said, “Everyone got on a wagon,” which he said for years after Obamacare got caught up in the law.
“All these young, healthy young men who don’t have dependents, not in the wagon,” Speaker said.
Medicaid back then and now
When President Johnson founded Medicaid along with Medicare, a medical program for the elderly, as part of the Social Security Amendment in 1965, it was aimed at low-income families and people with disabilities.
And it took off immediately. By 1970, almost every state had signed on Medicaid, according to KFF, an organization focused on health policy. It quickly covers the core population, including pregnant women, school-age children, extremely poor people as well as those who earn more than federal poverty limits.
15 years since then Affordable care methods Medicaid, which became law under President Barack Obama, has grown significantly as most states chose to take part in federal expansion. It covers approximately 80 million adults and children.
The uninsured population is declining, but the cost of the federal government providing Medicaid has also increased to more than $880 billion a year.
“There are many health effects that Medicaid has, but the toughest thing that does it is that it saves lives,” said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist and professor of public policy at the University of Chicago, who co-authored important research evaluating the program.
A change in the law would certainly save the federal government a “significant amount” of money, he said, but that would “a significant increase in mortality rates.
Food stamps, which were provided towards the end of Great Depression, but were suspended among supplies distributed during World War II, were launched as a federal program when Johnson signed the 1964 Food Stamps Act.
Today, SNAP offers nearly $200 per person monthly benefits to approximately 40 million recipients nationwide.
Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic PartyWho delivered it Longest speech While trying to suspend the bill, he said in House history that the change would hurt households and communities around the country.
“Who are these people?” Jeffries said. “We’re separating healthcare from the people of America. The biggest reduction in Medicaid in American history. We tear food from the mouths of children, elderly people and veterans.
