On Monday, March 11, the Trump administration released its proposed 2020 federal budget, which encompasses significant curbs and cuts to Medicare and Medicaid spending, and healthcare advocacy groups protested the actions proposed in that budget.
As The New York Times’ article on President Donald Trump’s proposed budget noted, “The budget would curb the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, two programs Mr. Trump had previously pledged to leave intact. And it proposes shaving $818 billion from projected spending on Medicare over 10 years and cutting nearly $1.5 trillion from projected spending on Medicaid. In place of the open-ended federal contribution to Medicaid,” the Times’s Jim Tankersley and Michael Tackett wrote, “Mr. Trump would give states ‘market-based health care grants’—lump sums of federal money or per capita allotments—totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Congress rejected this idea in 2017 when Republicans proposed it because it would essentially cap Medicaid payments at a fixed level and would not keep pace with rising health care costs. Mr. Trump also proposed new work requirements for working-age adult recipients of food stamps, federal housing support and Medicaid, a move the administration said would reduce spending on those programs by $327 billion over a decade because it would disqualify many who currently receive assistance,” they noted.
In addition, the Times reporters noted, “Payments to a variety of health care providers would also be cut. Medicare payments to hospitals for unpaid bills and uncompensated care would be reduced by $136 billion over 10 years. Mr. Trump would cut projected Medicare payments to hospital outpatient departments by $131 billion over 10 years.”
Meanwhile, Toluse Olorunnipa and Sean Sullivan wrote in a report late Monday evening in The Washington Post, that “Trump’s 10-year budget unveiled Monday calls for more than $845 billion in reductions for Medicare, aiming to cut ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ in the federal program that gives insurance to older Americans. It’s part of a broader proposed belt-tightening effort after deficits soared during the president’s first two years in office in part due to massive tax cuts for the wealthy.” Olorunnipa and Sullivan noted that “During his 2016 campaign, Trump broke from Republican orthodoxy by promising not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. His budget, by contrast, calls for scaling back all three programs.”
National healthcare associations were quick to protest. An Associated Press report published late Monday evening said that “Hospital groups are objecting strongly to hundreds of billions of dollars in proposed Medicare and Medicaid payment cuts in President Donald Trump’s budget. Two major hospital trade groups did not mince words in blog posts Monday by their leaders. Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, is calling proposed Medicare cuts ‘arbitrary and blunt,’ adding, ‘the impact on care for seniors would be devastating.’ American Hospital Association President Rick Pollack says the budget raises ‘serious concerns about how hospitals and health systems can ensure they serve as the safety net’ for patients. The budget includes a range of hospital cuts over 10 years, including reduced reimbursements for uncompensated care and lower rates for outpatient departments.” The AP article noted that “Medicare will spend about $650 billion this year. The administration says it’s targeting waste.”
This is a developing story; Healthcare Innovation will update readers as it evolves forward.
