Trump’s Retirement Reveals the Toll of Populism on American Healthcare
TL/DR –
The article discusses the impact of the Trump administration’s policies on healthcare in America, particularly the changes to Medicaid. The author suggests that these changes will negatively affect the working class, with the potential for millions of poor Americans to lose coverage and place financial pressure on local hospitals. The article also criticizes the Biden administration for ending the Medicaid Continuous Coverage program, arguing that this will result in further disenrollment and calls for a recentering of healthcare as a human right.
Trump’s Presidency Resurfaces Concerns Over Health Care Privatization and Medicaid Cuts
As Donald Trump begins his tenure at Mar-a-Lago post-presidential campaign, his alleged populism’s emptiness becomes evident. His cabinet comprises corporate lobbyists, neoconservative war hawks, climate deniers, and billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. These appointments could have a significant negative impact on American health care, particularly for the working class. Experts are deeply concerned about potential cuts to Medicaid, risking the healthcare coverage of millions of poor Americans and putting pressure on local hospitals. The potential collapse of the Affordable Care Act marketplace is on the horizon with expected subsidy depletion by 2025.
It is not solely Trump’s doing; both Republicans and Democrats have been slowly privatizing over the last fifty years. The pandemic, however, led to a temporary expansion of public investment in citizens with stimulus checks, child tax credit, and unemployment aids. Unfortunately, the benefits expired by 2021, leaving the federal government to revert to its previous state. Even the effective child tax credit in reducing child poverty was abandoned.
The Medicaid Continuous Coverage program, which helped keep seventy-one million Medicaid recipients covered during the COVID-19 pandemic, survived a little longer despite a lack of support. However, Biden signing a $1.7 trillion spending bill for 2023 led to the program’s demise. This change is likely to result in up to nineteen million people losing their coverage, according to health care advocates.
A recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation evaluated the effects of the Medicaid enrollment increase during the pandemic and subsequent disenrollment rates. The study revealed that twenty-five million people have been let go from the program, with certain states having disenrollment rates of over 50 percent.
Since Trump’s election, his advisers and congressional Republicans have been contemplating cost-saving measures that could include placing Medicaid funding under threat. Should this occur, it is expected that an additional fifteen million people could lose their coverage.
Impacts of Medicaid Cuts and the Fight for Health Care Rights
Despite Medicaid’s proven value in health outcomes, the program is at risk. The state’s flip-flopping on health insurance systems can be inhumane and illogical. The same urgency seen during the pandemic should be applied by the government in the face of impending Medicaid cuts, with the public demanding a commitment to health care as a human right.
Despite the pause on Medicare for All during the Biden administration, the fight for Medicaid could be a strategic move over the next four years. As per the Kaiser Family Foundation study, two-thirds of US adults “have a connection to Medicaid”. This shows a broad political basis for expanding public, comprehensive, single-payer healthcare programs.
As Trump begins his second term and public health infrastructure is under threat, the health care industry lobbyists are preparing to increase the power and profits of insurance and drug companies. The Left must focus on protecting Medicaid until the conditions are right for pushing Medicare for All. The pandemic showed the positive effects of public health care, and people need to remember that public services were there when they needed them the most.
—
Read More Health & Wellness News ; US News