The U.S. House narrowly passed a bill early Thursday that would slash taxes and cut Medicaid, a health care program that provides comprehensive health care services to low income adults and children. It now heads to the Senate.
While major changes may come to the wide-ranging bill, it's worth noting what passed out of the GOP-led House at the urging of President Donald Trump. Donald Moynihan and Pamela Herd, professors at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy, offer their insights:
"The current bill uses administrative burdens to accomplish unpopular policy goals, and chief among them are work requirements for Medicaid.
"The lawmakers and Trump administration officials argue work requirements work for Medicaid. They are flat-out wrong.
"To be sure, they work—but only if your goal is to reduce access to services, while largely failing to increase labor market participation. They are especially damaging to vulnerable populations, such as those who are already in poor health.
"If you account for Medicaid beneficiaries who are already working—and those excluded from work requirements due to disability or caregiving responsibilities—almost no one should lose coverage. But when Arkansas adopted work requirements in 2018, nearly all of the people who lost coverage had met the requirements. They simply couldn't manage the paperwork to prove it.
"Beyond work requirements, the House proposes other administrative burdens, such as co-pays and more frequent renewals, that we know will kick eligible beneficiaries off the program.
"Bottom line: The result of this vision would be dysfunctional government to pay for tax cuts."
Contact: Moynihan ([email protected]), Herd ([email protected])
