Medicaid to be cut

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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** Bowden explains, “Make no mistake: this is a direct retreat from Johnson’s previous position, which as recently as February was ‘we’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid’…. The intent seems clear: the Republican House speaker is open to cutting Medicaid benefits in states that expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. In 2014, the federal government began assisting states with coverage for low-income individuals of all age groups — very much including ‘able-bodied workers’ and ‘young men,’ whom Johnson said should not have coverage.”**

This is goiing to be like measles ripping through the South.

‘Hospitals are going to close’: Johnson insisted he won’t 'touch Medicaid — but now pushes deep cuts

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The point is to force unemployed able-bodied workers into the work force.

Overview

Medicaid enrollment and costs have skyrocketed this century. The biggest driver of this growth is the increase of able-bodied adults in the program, burdening taxpayers and the truly needy alike. In total, nearly 85 percent of the enrollment increase over the last 10 years is directly attributable to able-bodied adults. Enrollment of able-bodied adults has crowded out resources for the truly needy, including seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities.

Unfortunately, without work requirements in place, most able-bodied adults on Medicaid do not work at all. This is despite most new jobs requiring little experience, education, or on-the-job training. [end quote]

I agree with the premise that people who can work should work if they are going to suck at the government’s te@t as professional parasites. (Cue @steve203 who will whine that many jobs are exploitive, don’t pay enough, etc. etc.)

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/medicaid-work-requirements-republicans-congress-budget-mike-johnson-7920f38c?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

The GOP’s proposed Medicaid work requirements in 2023 were extremely modest—20 hours a week, which could include training for a job or volunteering, say, at the local library.

Republicans offered exceptions for nearly anyone with a plausible reason. Pregnant, have children, or caring for an incapacitated relative? You’re exempt. Got a doctor’s note attesting that you’re unfit to work? Exempt. Ditto for anyone enrolled in school or getting help for alcohol or drug abuse. [end quote]

The government provides noncash assistance like food stamps, housing subsidies, and tax credits which reduce the poverty rate in the U.S. Medicaid is a very expensive subsidy.

To me, the best argument for providing Medicaid to the able-bodied parasites is that they could spread disease to the healthy population. Plus, their hope of ever becoming productive will be even worse if their health deteriorates without care.

Yes, I do think that productivity is important. Not because of the so-called “dignity of work” but because I resent the fact that hard-working people are forced to support lazy parasites.
Wendy

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Do you believe 85 percent of enrollment is able bodied adults Wendy?

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“Do you believe 85 percent of enrollment is able bodied adults Wendy?”

Read the statement more carefully.
“In total, nearly 85 percent of the enrollment increase over the last 10 years is directly attributable to able-bodied adults.”

This is NOT saying that 85% of enrolled Medicaid recipients are able-bodied. Before changes in the rules made 10 years ago the able-bodied weren’t covered so almost all the covered were NOT able-bodied. Once the able-bodied became covered they flooded in.

I have no objection to low-income workers being covered by Medicaid. My objection is to the unemployed able-bodied being covered. It’s always possible to find work although the work may be hard and low-paid.
Wendy

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Do you believe that? That is what I meant.

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I don’t. 36% of them are children. 10% are disabled, 10% are 65 and older, and only 42% are adults - and 61% of the adults - over 25% of the total - are working but not earning enough to qualify for other insurance.

At best, 17% of Medicaid recipients are adults not currently working.

Better direct link to my quoted data:

Where they got their data:

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It’s not a question of my “belief.” It’s a question of what the data says.
Wendy

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Ahh the a data so If the “Data” says that it has to be true? Ok well I think it is a lie, and if you have to lie about your positon to pad it then it is all a bunch of horse puckey. Everyone wants anyone who can work to work if they are on welfare. That is a reasonable request. But if they have to lie about their position than I believe none of it.

After all millions of dead of people are getting Social Security. It’s all in the Data.

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Nonsense.

Most of the people in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion are the working poor.

The real goal is to move people from Medicaid to a for-profit Obamacare plan where the skim rate (and the taxpayer-subsidized tax credit) is much higher. As an added bonus. the low-income person now has a crap for-profit plan with higher deductibles and co-pays, making it harder to see a doctor.

Moving a poor person from Medicaid to a for-profit plan costs the Gov’t more because of the size of the Obamacare tax subsidy to the insurer.

intercst

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Dear Wendy,

If only that for one minute was true.

The objective is not to pay a dime for your needs because it means taxing the rich.

Shoving YOU from the train is the objective. It is your turn.

Dear Intercst,

The Medicaid budget is mostly about seniors in nursing homes. Let someone else pay for it regardless. Just do not tax the rich.

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Dear Fools,

Be careful when reading “Wedge Issues”, they are lies to rope you into positions that go much further to hurt Americans if possible.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/g-s1-59261/medicaid-cuts-long-term-care-caregivers

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Me, too, but the lazy parasites are the very wealthy at the top.

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By “parasites” I think you mean our fellow human beings, but there are some better arguments than that. One is delaying preventive care can lead to more serious (and expensive) health crises later. Another is that able bodied people younger than 65 don’t use that much health care in the first place, so trying to create a compliance system might cost more than the savings.

Another is that jobs meeting the hourly requirements may not exist–especially in rural and economically disadvantaged areas. Which by the way is where many of the able-bodies recipients are coming from.

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Exactly. As I have posted before, TIG experimented with a Medicaid work requirement on the last go around. Michigan, then pushed enabling legislation through. The sponsors of the legislation openly said it would not save any money. It would probably cost the state more to enforce, than it might save by tossing able bodied people off Medicaid. It was entirely about pushing more people into taking the bottom feeder “jobs” that “JCs” cried they couldn’t fill.

It is that effort in Michigan that informs “Plan Steve to save Social Security”. The various vectors of “Plan Steve” always come down to forcing people into the workforce: be they 14 year old children, or 70-somethings, that are still fit enough for a “JC” to squeeze some more labor out of them.

Steve

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I have a deep distrust of anything coming out of the current administration, but there are a lot of Trump apologists out there. To me, it’s the theory that if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. I fully expect that they ram some of their starter austerity plans thru, then in the near future we’ll be dealing with: any able bodied person on SS and Medicare will need to work.

Government spending is out of control, has been for decades. The thought that the corrupt Trump is going to get it under control is a fantasy. I look no further than the tax cuts they want to extend. Any sane person can see that those extended cuts will blow up the national debt. And the “funny” part is that they’ll be asking for more tax cuts down the road, they always do. Americans are sleepwalking themselves into a very nasty back alley.

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Living in Michigan over the years, I have learned to always expect deception from the (L&Ses) in Lansing. I remember when the Gov (Engler?) was pushing his school finance “reform”. He was promising a big property tax cut, in exchange for an increase in the sales tax of “only 2%” He lied like a rug. It was a 2 percentage point increase, from 4% to 6%, ie, a 50% increase in the sales tax.

Did you see the newly announced candidate for Gov on TV last night? He cried that his granddaughter is receiving a better education in Mississippi than the kids living down the street from him here in Michigan receive. Of course, he didn’t say if his granddaughter was going to an elite private school in Mississippi, vs kids going to Michigan public schools.

Of course, he wants to repeal the income tax, without saying how the loss of revenue would be dealt with, he wants to reinstate “right to work”, and he wants more “school choice”.

That is “Plant Steve to save SS”: a work requirement for able bodied people, regardless of age, to receive the Medicare benefits they paid for, and the SS pension only available to people who were too broken down and feeble for the “JCs” to extract any more work from.

Steve

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Indeed, you point to this, but what kind of studies do we have to characterize this population? With very low levels of unemployment, are there any nearby jobs available for which these people are qualified?

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Argh! You edited your post down before I could read all of it.

Steve

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You didn’t miss anything. It was just multiple copies of syke’s post caused by a keyboard issue.

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