Last week, House Republicans passed the Trump administration’s budget bill, which includes over $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The fight is not over, however. Caring Across Generations put out a National Protect Medicaid 2025 Toolkit.
NICOLE JORWIC; [email protected]
Jorwic is the chief program officer of Caring Across Generations.
Jorwic told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Caring Across Generations is a movement of care workers, family caregivers, and people who need care, including aging people and people with disabilities of all ages, who are fighting for the care systems we need. We are also fighting to change the culture around caregiving: to move it from something that is seen as an individual responsibility, or even a failure, to a societal need that we need collective solutions around. We’ve focused on care broadly––paid leave, child care––with a primary focus on aging and disability care. After Trump’s [second] election, we knew that the only system that provides aging and disability care is Medicaid, and it would be under attack.
“Most people think of Medicaid as a healthcare program, so we have partnered with patient and healthcare advocacy groups and disability organizations. But Medicaid is also a workforce program; it pays for wages of 70 percent of direct care workers, healthcare for child care workers, and doctors who are in residency. Labor has been a strong partner across the board. Medicaid is also an education program, so schools and teachers have been engaged [in the coalition] because Medicaid pays for services in school. Even in the healthcare space, people think of Medicaid as a program for low income people. That’s not the case.
“It was a real blow to see the House pass a bill that includes $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid. If this passes the Senate, it would be the largest cut in history. But we have a long fight here. In 2017, we were able to defeat [similar cuts] after the budget passed the House. Our narrative is even clearer here. The reason they are proposing cutting Medicaid is to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and to gut systems, including systems of long term care. That is not something the public is supportive of. It’s obviously a big goal of Trump’s to get these tax cuts, but that doesn’t need to happen on the backs of people who need Medicaid. Ideally, we can stop the bill altogether.
“This toolkit is for anybody. The way that we’re going to win on Medicaid is to engage people who don’t realize it is important to them. This is a tool for organizations who might not realize they should be involved in the fight, and for individuals who are ready to do a little bit more in their communities. So many people don’t realize cuts would impact their hospital or rural health center. This is meant to be an entry point for a lot of different folks.”