Paul Ryan: I've Been Dreaming About Kicking Poors Off Medicaid Since I Was a Drunk Frat Boy [View all]

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Paul Ryan: I’ve Been Dreaming About Kicking Poors Off Medicaid Since I Was a Drunk Frat Boy
By Osita Nwanevu

Ryan: So, the health care entitlements are the big, big, big drivers of our debt. There are three. Obamacare, Medicaid, and Medicare. Two out of three are going through Congress right now. So, Medicaid—sending it back to the states, capping its growth rate. We’ve been dreaming of this since you and I were drinking out of a keg.

Lowry:I was thinking about something else, he was thinking about reforming Medicaid.

Ryan: I was, I was! I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. We are on the cusp of doing something we’ve long believed in.

When Paul Ryan was doing keg stands with his Delta Tau Delta brothers, Medicaid provided insurance almost exclusively to poor families on welfare, pregnant women, and the low-income elderly and disabled on Supplemental Security Income.

Today, in part due to Obamacare’s expansion of the program, Medicaid covers more than 73 million struggling Americans. Ryan’s AHCA gradually ends funding for the Medicaid expansion and allocates Medicaid funding to states based on the number of Medicaid beneficiaries rather than the actual cost of covering them as is currently the case.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 14 million fewer Americans will be covered by the program by 2026 as a result. That number could balloon if the work requirements and block-granting currently being contemplated on the Hill make it into the final bill.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/17/paul_ryan_s_college_dream_was_to_kick_poor_people_off_medicaid.html