Republican Budget Plan's Impact on Medicaid a Threat to Middle Class

Today the Center for American Progress released a column examining the top 10 reasons why everyday Americans should pay close attention to the House Republican proposal to cut Medicaid. This fact sheet follows a press call and recent report by CAP Senior Fellow Scott Lilly, "The Ryan Medicaid Plan: A Threat to Middle Class Security," that laid out the extraordinary implications not only for poor individuals who are normally thought of as the principal beneficiaries of the program but for a very broad swath of middle-class families.

Some facts from Lilly's report about the program's beneficiaries include:

• Many elderly and disabled Medicaid beneficiaries once lived in middle-class households.
• The elderly and disabled make up only 25 percent of Medicaid's enrollees though they account for two-thirds of Medicaid spending.
• Medicaid pays for prenatal and maternity care and that care is at least partially responsible for the dramatic decreases in miscarriages and infant mortality that have taken place in this country since 1960, when Medicaid became law.

In "10 Reasons Why Everyday Americans Need Medicaid," CAP's Scott Lilly, Melissa Boteach, and Katie Wright break down the impact that Republican proposals to slash Medicaid would have on middle-class families--families that as the result of old age, injury, disease, or some other catastrophic happenstance could face medical and long-term care bills that far exceed what their savings and insurance will cover.

Read the column here.

The Center also held a press call today featuring Lilly and Norman J. Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute Scholar. According to Ornstein, "This whole budget debate is enough to give anyone a severe case of heartburn now because it's turned into something that's moved even beyond the realm of the absurd. This no longer has to do with reducing deficits, it's all become a way to drawdown spending--whatever the consequences--without a dime in tax increases."

Listen to the press call here (mp3).

To speak with a CAP expert about this issue, please contact Raul Arce-Contreras at rarcecontreras@americanprogress.org or 202.478.5318.