What's Wrong with the Obama Administration's Cuts to Medicaid

newdeal20.org — While the public debate about the Republican budget focused on the sharp reactions against Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization scheme, the other big “M” in health care, Medicaid, hasn’t received the attention it deserves. As a result, the Obama administration has proposed cuts in Medicaid. Medicaid comprises 51 different state programs operating under federal rules, financed by both the federal and state governments. As a result, it’s much harder for the feds to control Medicaid costs. The Ryan/Republican budget doesn’t even try; it simply cuts federal spending on Medicaid, shifts the rest of the costs to the states, and makes it easier for states to c. Unfortunately, most President Obama's proposals in the debt-ceiling negotiations are a kinder and gentler version of the same wrong-headed policy of shifting costs to states, and through them to American families, rather than dealing with the underlying reasons that Medicaid costs are rising.

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