Republicans once maligned Medicaid. Now some see a program too big to touch

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 4:49 PM EST, March 2, 2025


WASHINGTON (AP) — Every time a baby is born in Louisiana, where Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson handily won reelection last year, there’s more than a 60% chance taxpayers will finance the birth through Medicaid.

In Republican Rep. David Valadao ’s central California district, 6 out of 10 people use Medicaid to pay for doctor visits and emergency room trips. And one-third of the population is covered by Medicaid in GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Alaska, one of the nation’s costliest corners for health care.

Each of these Republicans — and some of their conservative colleagues — lined up last week to defend Medicaid, in a departure from long-held GOP policies. Republicans, who already have ruled out massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, are turning their attention to siphoning as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade to help finance $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

But as a deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown nears, hesitation is surfacing among Washington’s Republican lawmakers — once reliable critics of lofty government social welfare programs such as Medicaid — who say that deep cuts to the health care program could prove too untenable for people back home.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-cuts-budget-republicans-health-care-4a13fc3528d7bf20ea52db4a5551c8bf

[Raftergirl]

1. It's like they are just realizing that a gazillion of their constituents are on Medicaid, and dozens of other

safety net programs.

Very few R’s represent the wealthy districts. The majority represent lower middle class/ barely middle class and extremely poor rural areas.

[travelingthrulife]

2. In other words, they figured out Mom and Dad will be living with them instead of

the nursing home.

[Raftergirl]

3. There won't be enough workers in the nursing homes anyway, with immigrants being deported.

I don’t think they know who works in the places that care for our elderly.

[NotHardly]

4. F*cking lying cowards

[mathematic]

5. Americans don't know that there is a difference between Medicare and Medicaid and this finally causing problems for Rs

Sanders called his proposal "Medicare for All", even though it was more like "Medicaid for All", and ever since then people really haven't been able to distinguish the programs very well.

I think if there was more association of Medicaid as "welfare for poor people" among the general public, these cuts would go smoother. I started seeing Medicaid explainers recently highlighting this and fully expect the information blitz to ramp up over the next few weeks.