Republican efforts to slash billions in Medicaid funding would be “an attack on rural America,” Gov. Andy Beshear and three other Democratic governors said Tuesday.
The cuts would strip health care from millions of low-income Americans and cause the closure of dozens of rural hospitals over the next decade, they said on a call organized by the Democratic Governors Association.
Roughly 400,000 Kentuckians “who didn’t previously have (health care) coverage now do in my state,” Beshear, the DGA vice chair, said. Other DGA leaders speaking out against the GOP’s Medicaid proposal included Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who is chair of the association; Hawaii Gov. Josh Green; and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
“Medicaid covers the people we love most in this world: our parents and our kids,” Beshear said. “Half of Kentucky’s kids are covered by Medicaid. Gutting Medicaid would impact families in a substantial way. It would devastate and potentially end rural health care, (which) cannot survive without Medicaid.”
The group assembled Tuesday morning to sound the alarm on the far-reaching impacts of U.S. House Republicans’ plan, which proposes deep cuts to Medicaid, the federal government health insurance program covering approximately 79 million Americans, primarily low-income adults, children and people with disabilities.
The cuts would help foot the bill for President Donald Trump’s proposed spending for border security and tax cuts.
“It absolutely has to be stopped,” Green said Tuesday. “This is the most important battle we will be a part of, I believe, in these next couple of years.”
Read the rest at the Herald-Leader.
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