The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are proposing massive funding cuts to healthcare to pay for tax breaks for the ultra wealthy and big corporations!

 

Republicans are going too far, too fast to recklessly cut health care and social programs, the majority (at least $880 billion) being cuts to Medicaid. You can't cut $880 billion from Medicaid without terminating healthcare for millions of Americans, including people fighting cancer, seniors in nursing homes, children, veterans, and people with disabilities. These cuts do nothing to crack down on corporate greed and price gouging that's making healthcare so expensive.​

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The planned cuts would:

• Terminate health coverage for millions of Americans, including threatening the health coverage of 1.4 million Coloradans.

• Gut Medicaid for seniors/older adults, children, people with disabilities, veterans, and would essentially end the Medicaid expansion currently covering roughly 400,000 Coloradans

• Punish people fighting cancer and other serious chronic diseases, gig workers and freelancers, caregivers, people with disabilities, and people who get laid off—by terminating their healthcare— which will only make them sicker and less able to work. That's not common sense. 

• Cut financial assistance that helps working families afford health insurance under the ACA and disrupt the individual insurance market.

• Undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions. If people can't afford their coverage, they will be forced to make impossible decisions.

• Take away billions of dollars in funding for health care in Colorado when our state budget already faces a $1 billion shortfall.

• Resurrect devastating cuts in coverage and benefits that the American public has already resoundingly rejected.

• This plan would 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.

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We need health care solutions that actually improve health coverage and help Coloradans afford insurance, not cuts and attacks that make coverage unaffordable and leave millions in America without the health care they need.​

 

Talking Points:

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• Medicaid provides coverage for older adults, people needing nursing and in-home care, people with disabilities, children, and families.

• Any cuts to Medicaid will terminate health coverage for seniors, children, people with disabilities, and families. These extreme cuts threaten the financial security and access to coverage and care for over a million Coloradans.

• The proposed cuts threaten to strip health coverage or benefits and will make health coverage significantly more expensive for as many as 1.4 million Coloradans, 22% of our state's population! 

• These cuts do nothing to lower the costs of health care or address corporate greed. They shift costs onto Colorado families and communities and will lead to even higher health care costs and more families falling into medical debt.

• Adding burdensome red tape, like work requirements, to Medicaid will just make it harder for people to navigate an already complex system and cause people to lose the health care they need. Overwhelmingly people receiving health or food assistance are already working. Adding administrative barriers will cost the state millions of dollars while harming Coloradans and leading to a sicker workforce.

• Many rural health care providers are struggling, including hospitals and clinics. Health care cuts will put rural providers at extreme risk of closing their doors in areas where Coloradans would have no alternative sources of care. If Congress makes these devastating cuts, our health coverage and care systems will crumble and the costs of health care will spike.

• Cuts to Medicaid threaten the financial stability of our state when Colorado already faces a $670 million shortfall this year. Colorado cannot afford these cuts and they will devastate Colorado's families, communities, health care providers, and our economy.

• Coloradans and Americans already resoundingly rejected these kinds of cuts in 2017 and 2018.

• Coloradans should be able to get quality, affordable health care when they need it. Any cuts to healthcare take us backwards from that goal.

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Medicaid talking points

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• Rural: Many healthcare providers -- especially rural hospitals -- will be forced to close as a result of these cuts. These cuts will be a disaster for Colorado’s rural communities and our economy, and rural Coloradans will lose access to the coverage and the care they need.

• Seniors: Medicaid helps seniors pay for nursing home care and long-term care services to live independently in their home that Medicare does not cover. With an aging population, this is crucial to Colorado’s overall health.

• Children and Families: Children who have Medicaid are more likely to attend school, graduate from high school and attend college than those who are uninsured. Families with Medicaid are less likely to end up with medical debt or have their financial security jeopardized by medical bills.

• Economic Stability: Congress wants to pass the buck and shift the costs to states and working families, all while giving a tax break to the ultra wealthy and big corporations. This is not a solution. The costs are still there, and Colorado can’t afford to pick up the tab, especially when our state budget already faces a big shortfall.

• State Flexibility: Medicaid is very flexible now for Colorado. The program allows our state to make decisions around eligibility, benefits, premiums, and cost-sharing, as well as provider payment. States who want more flexibility can already request a waiver adjust additional Medicaid parameters. Colorado is very efficient and innovative with Medicaid dollars.

  • Adding red tape and onerous requirements to Medicaid enrollment, pushes families backwards and will just lead to Coloradans losing the coverage they're eligible for.​

• Market Stability: Without Medicaid, the private insurance market and Medicare will not work. Medicaid is a critical part of our healthcare system as a whole.

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