Republicans once maligned Medicaid. Now some see a program too big to touch [View all]
WASHINGTON (AP) Every time a baby is born in Louisiana, where Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson handily won reelection last year, theres more than a 60% chance taxpayers will finance the birth through Medicaid.
In Republican Rep. David Valadao s central California district, 6 out of 10 people use Medicaid to pay for doctor visits and emergency room trips.
And one-third of the population is covered by Medicaid in GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowskis Alaska, one of the nations costliest corners for health care.
Each of these Republicans and some of their conservative colleagues lined up last week to defend Medicaid, in a departure from long-held GOP policies. Republicans, who already have ruled out massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, are turning their attention to siphoning as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade to help finance $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-cuts-budget-republicans-health-care-4a13fc3528d7bf20ea52db4a5551c8bf
Not enough do.