Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement condemning President Trump’s budget proposal for the detrimental cuts it makes to Medicaid programs that provide quality health care to more than 600,000 Nevadans and millions of Americans. Recently, Senator Cortez Masto and all the Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee also sent a letter calling on the Trump administration to end its harmful attacks on the Medicaid program.
“A few weeks ago President Trump told the American people that he would protect their vital social safety-net programs, but his budget proposes over $1 trillion in cuts to health programs that provide health care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment and prescription drug coverage to millions of hardworking Americans. President Trump’s plan for Medicaid is long on cuts and short on details. But what we do know is that hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts would unequivocally take Nevada backward by forcing the state to gut critical benefits like mental health treatment, and kick the most vulnerable Nevadans off their health insurance coverage. These rollbacks would be especially harmful for Nevada’s young adults, parents with young children and communities of color who have benefited the most from Medicaid expansion.
“The President promised he wouldn’t cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, so why does his budget do the exact opposite for struggling Nevadans and hardworking families?”
BACKGROUND:
President Trump’s FY 2021 budget proposal calls for extreme cuts to a wide range of vital agencies and programs that Nevadans rely on every day, from health care and housing to education and environmental protection.
The Trump Administration’s FY2021 budget proposal would cut over $920 billion in Medicaid funding over 10 years, ripping away health care from millions of Americans. Specifically, this proposal would:
- Pave the way for ending Medicaid as we know it;
- Eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansion, threatening the coverage of over 13 million Americans – including 200,000 Nevadans – who gained coverage under the ACA’s Medicaid expansion;
- Cuts of that magnitude will especially impact minority populations; threatening the health care of more than 8.7 million people of color and creating racial care disparities that can prevent early diagnoses and treatment of diseases like cancer.
- Increase red tape and institute Medicaid work requirements that could take coverage away from millions of hardworking parents, seasonal and low-wage workers;
- Apply higher copays to low-income patients, and force workers to sell their homes or cars before becoming eligible for Medicaid.
- Cut a total of $1 trillion from Medicaid, opioid prevention, mental health investments and ACA premium tax credits in order to spend $1.4 trillion making President Trump’s tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations permanent; and
- Threaten vital mental health and substance abuse services for patients covered under Medicaid, the largest mental health provider in the nation.
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