Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of stories about the effects of people living in the south of federal expenditures.
Last year, doctors found a mass in the abdomen of an 10 -year -old daughter of Angelica Mccain. They were immediately sent to the emergency room, and MCCAIN learned that the daughter had a model that was a rare tumor on the right ovary.
“I started a panic attack.” They were doing all scanning and all X -rays, and what I could think was, ‘How would you pay if Averree has a disease?’
The doctor has surgely removed 16-centimeters. They have obtained Aven’s correct ovaries, but she will be overcrowded for several years and will allow the ovary to maintain health.
Medicaid has dealt with surgery. In addition, we will pay the annual test and continuous treatment costs with the five -year -old daughters of other health care Avers and McCain.
McCain, a 35 -year -old white woman who lives in Alabama Hoover and works three things, said, “If you don’t have Medicaid, you won’t be able to handle the annual checkup.” “We have to go when they are sick and the checkups are very important. There is no other way except to say that Medicaid saved my child’s life.”
Medicaid is a major government program that deals with medical insurance and long -term treatment for about 8.3 million people in the United States. According to Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), Medicaid expenditures account for a fifth of health care expenses, more than half of long -term nursing expenditures and a large part of the main budget. The state and federal governments are Finance Medicaid, and the federal government pays the state to manage the program within most cost and extensive federal rules. In the 2023 fiscal year, medicaid spending totaled $ 880 billion, According to KFFWith the federal government pay A week pays 69% ($ 660 billion) and 31% ($ 27.4 billion).
The Republican House of Republicans, which was controlled by the Republican Party, passed the budget resolution at the end of February to reduce billions of dollars to reduce the major changes in Medicade. President Donald Trump and his allies House speaker Mike Johnson says Medicaid, Medicare and social security are not mentioned in the resolution.
However, the resolution instructs the House of Representatives Energy and Commercial Commission to reduce $ 880 billion over the next decade to the House of Representatives and Commercial Commissions. The non -party council budget office has published a report on the proposal that the House of Representatives does not work without cutting to Medicaid. (NPR will take a closer look For the reason mathematics is not combined.)
Reduction will help wealthy people and companies
This reduction will help you to finance of $ 4.5 trillion in tax benefits for very wealthy people and large companies. More than half of the tax reduction will benefit people with the top 5% of households or those with an annual income of $ 450,000 or more. Analysis of Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. (Yale’s budget laboratory has published a similar report. In detail.)
that Senate’s budget resolution This demanded a $ 1 billion financial committee, which had jurisdiction over Medicide’s spending in February. In the next few months, the Senate and the House of Representatives will try to present the final version by adjusting the two bills. (The budget resolution will be applied to the future fiscal year, and the following will begin in October. The six -month financing bill passed last week to avoid the closure of the government last week is the current temporary expenditure bill for fiscal year.
10The state decided not to expand Medicaid. Alabama is one of them.
Theresa Lau, a senior policy advisor to the poverty of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the conservative story point that Medicaid is not subject to the House of Representatives is incorrect.
LAU is unpleasant to say, “We are chasing fraud and waste.”
LAU said that the belief that Medicaid fraud is widespread is not accurate. The reality is that Medicaid is a very expensive program with low management costs, she said.
“So there’s not much that can be cut before it affects the scope and service of the application,” said LAU.
SPLC I published a report Last week, we partnered with UNIDOSUS and other organizations and partnerships with the proposed Medicaid cuts on the devastating and unbalanced damage that could be held for colored people.
It is a reality that Kiana George, a 30 -year -old black woman, is already living. George, who lives in Camden, Alabama, works as a teacher after school. She fell from Medicaid in 2023 as she finished the continuous registration protection during the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2023. After she stopped taking blood pressure drugs she could not afford, she left her for thousands of dollars of medical debt. She earned intensive treatment with high blood pressure at a stroke level earlier this year.
Like MCCAIN, George has a guaranteed child, but is guaranteed. They both make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but they are not enough to receive subsidies to pay health insurance premiums through the federal market. For example, in order to qualify for subsidies, the income of three families must be over 100% of the federal poverty level, which must be $ 25,820 per year.
George said, “What does it mean? I am not enough to get help, but I do too much to get help.
George said that it could be overwhelming to deal with misunderstandings and stereotypes of people without insurance and those in Medicaid without insurance in chronic state.
“I wear you after a while.
White people indicate the largest racial demographic statistics of Medicaid winners at about 39.5%of age under 64. MCCAIN said he knew that the stigma faced by the Medicaid recipient, especially the blacks, would be more severely subject to the point of conversation with the members of the National Assembly, whether it was a point of conversation with the members of the National Assembly.
“You are not white people in the Medicaid poster,” she said. “People with my skin color are the faces of all the negative things that I said.”
This is Alabama One of 10 states It did not expand Medicaid. Expanding Medicaid will increase the number of people who are qualified for Medicaid and provide additional federal funds for the main program.
About 1 million people are currently qualified in Medicaid in Alabama, which operates one of the most limited programs in the United States. The program mainly provides services to children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the elderly, who are mainly composed of more than half of the Medicide beneficiaries. For parents or caregivers Please be completely qualified according to incomeThey must have children under the age of 19, for example, the income of three families cannot exceed $ 400 a month. Adults without children are not qualified for Medicaid, regardless of income.
‘We must take care of people’
Hundreds of groups across the Alabama have urged lawmakers to refuse to cut Medicaid. Among them are the Alabama Union Cover, representing 130 organizations including SPLC. SPLC mainly supports a fair approach to expanding Medicaid and health care through the federal and state policy advocacy and legal advocacy (including class actions in the state, including the LOUISIANA’s collective lawsuit).
Debbie Smith, director of Alabama Arise’s Cover Alabama campaign, said that the Union has defended Medicade for many years. Smith said that, facing the potential federal cuts that can endanger Alabama’s Lean Medicaid program, Smith is concerned that the effect of the most needed health care can be significant.
“It is the most vulnerable people in our state who can access the current coverage.
1mExpected people of those who are qualiced in Alabama.
Huntsville’s Thrive Alabama is a federal health center that provides other services, including medical and transportation and translation for people, regardless of paying ability or insurance status. As a federal health center, Thrive benefits the same high Medicaid repayment rate. Thrive Alabama CEARY Elizabeth Marr recently said that the recent reduction of Medicide was panic among the center’s Medicaid patients.
“I called the customer who still asked if the customer still has a doctor or asks if he should arrive in the appointment,” she said. “I told everyone that we will continue to take care of it until we can’t do it. It’s very scary. I’m very scared. I’ve done this for 30 years, and I’ve never seen this kind of obstacles. This is the United States. We must take care of people.”
Jerome Dees, SPLC’s Alabama Policy Officer, said that it would not be possible to absorb federal cuts and to maintain the program. Alabama is actually ready to make substantial progress in Medicide’s reports after more than 10 years of delay, he said. The House of Representatives, which will provide estimated qualifications to pregnant women, is only a voting vote for the Governor’s desk for signing. Meanwhile, two bills dealing with postpartum treatment began to get momentum from the legislature.
DEES said, “In light of the state -of -the -art mortality rate of the country, this health care protection could not come in more urgently needed time.
Smith said that the Union focuses on advocating to communicate with lawmakers for reducing Medicaid to lawmakers. Work requirements fail.
“I think there’s a misunderstanding that people who are currently receiving Medicaid are not eligible to leave the government or get medical insurance.” It is a disabled person. It is a pregnant woman who claims to be caring. The elderly in the nursing home. And we need federal lawmakers to understand it. “
Smith said Medicaid’s Gutting will not affect only the people of this program.
Smith said, “Our medical system we know will collapse.” I do not think it is an exaggeration. Medicaid is absolutely the backbone of the system. Our hospital and clinic will not survive without it. “
Picture at the top of Katie Martin.
