Opinion: Health care for millions of Coloradans would be in jeopardy if Congress makes cuts to support tax breaks for ultrawealthy
It feels like deja vu. Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump apparently have forgotten the lessons from 2017 and 2018 when they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, and gut Medicaid to pay for tax breaks. They failed in the literal courts and in the court of public opinion, but here they go again.
Recently leaked lists of proposed cuts show just how cruel Republicans want these cuts to be, all to pass tax breaks of up to $10 trillion that benefit only the ultrawealthy and big corporations. These cuts jeopardize health coverage for millions of Americans, would skyrocket health care costs, and would cause hospitals, clinics and providers, especially safety-net providers and those in rural areas, to crumble. And that’s not all, they’re also proposing massive cuts to other vital social programs like healthy school meals for kids and food stamps.
Last week’s House Budget Resolution passed by Republicans calls for at least $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, but other lists of potential cuts propose more than $2.6 trillion in cuts to Medicaid alone, plus billions of dollars in additional cuts to the ACA that would make health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans.
These cuts put the health coverage at risk for roughly 1.4 million Coloradans (1.1 million with Medicaid and 282,000 on the ACA marketplace Connect for Health Colorado). That’s more than 1 of every 5 of our friends, neighbors and community members. And that doesn’t include the billions in cuts to food programs Coloradans need to stay healthy.
Nationally, there are 80 million Americans covered through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. These programs provide coverage for older adults, people living with disabilities, people who need nursing home or in-home care, children and families.
Six of every 10 Coloradans in nursing facilities rely on Medicaid, and Medicaid is vital for providing in-home care to help people with disabilities and aging adults live independently. Over 34% of Colorado children are covered through Medicaid. The cuts would undermine Colorado’s hard work to expand coverage, essentially ending Medicaid expansion and ripping coverage from 500,000 Coloradans.
For Coloradans buying private insurance, the cuts would mean an increase of 50% or more in what we pay for insurance enrolling through Connect for Health Colorado, and rural parts of the state would be hit even harder. Without robust financial assistance offered by the ACA that helps working families afford health insurance, many working-class and middle-class families without employer-funded health care would be left behind, uninsured and worried that a bad accident or a serious illness would send them into medical debt.
Colorado is already grappling with a huge budget shortfall of $1 billion because of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and the artificial and harmful cap on our state budget and revenue, and we are already fighting to protect Medicaid at the state level. These federal cuts, if passed, would utterly decimate our state budget. Currently Colorado would receive roughly $9 billion in federal funds for all health programs in the next fiscal year, of which roughly $7 billion is directly for Medicaid. Colorado cannot afford any of the proposed cuts, and they would devastate Colorado’s families, communities, health care providers and our economy.
These cuts would also disproportionately harm states like Colorado that have expanded our Medicaid program and have worked hard to get as many Coloradans covered in private insurance as possible.
Nearly 300,000 jobs in Colorado are directly in health care. While these cuts would have immediate and drastic effects on hospitals and health care providers, the impacts would spread throughout the health care sector. These cuts would only exacerbate provider shortages.
In rural Colorado where Medicaid often covers more than 30% of residents, many health care providers and facilities would be unable to sustain themselves if these cuts are passed, with many struggling already. So not only would countless Coloradans lose coverage and their jobs, but they would lose access to care when there already aren’t enough health care providers in rural areas.
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have stated they want to bring down costs for Americans, but who are they actually going to cut costs for?
They’re cutting costs for multimillionaires and billionaires and mega-corporations, not everyday Americans and Coloradans. Health care prices are too high already and these cuts would do nothing to lower health care costs. Quite the opposite, they would only cause higher health care costs and shift them onto Colorado families and communities as more families lose coverage and fall into devastating medical debt.
Congress must put the needs of everyday Americans first, not the greed of the ultrawealthy. Protect affordable health care and social programs, and stand with your constituents.
If you don’t want to see health coverage gutted for millions of people or health care deserts in your community (or see them worsen), contact your Colorado members of Congress and tell them to stop these cuts.
Adam Fox, of Erie, is the deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, where he has worked since 2011.
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