BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It…
This week at CBPP, we focused on health care, food assistance, and the economy.
- On health care, we explained that the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would end Medicaid as we know it, with even deeper cuts than the House-passed version of the bill. Jesse Cross-Call, Tara Straw, Arloc Sherman, and Matt Broaddus highlighted how the Senate bill would be particularly harmful to rural America. We illustrated how the GOP’s proposed Medicaid per capita cap would shift costs to the states.
Aviva Aron-Dine noted the weaknesses in the GOP’s latest effort to discredit the Congressional Budget Office’s health coverage estimates. Sarah Lueck warned that the Senate health bill’s six-month waiting period penalty for people with gaps in coverage would lock people out of coverage while providing little benefit to the risk pool. Judith Solomon explained that while the Senate health bill encourages expansion of home- and community-based services, its Medicaid cuts would likely limit them.
We detailed how the Senate health bill would end the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, leaving many low-wage workers uninsured in seven states: Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. We updated our paper on how Alaskans could suffer the most under the Senate Republican health bill.
- On food assistance, Elizabeth Wolkomir pointed to Georgetown Law Professor Peter Edelman and Rep. Joe Kennedy III’s Time op-ed about the vital role that SNAP (formerly food stamps) has played in reducing food insecurity and lifting millions out of poverty.
- On the economy, we updated our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession and our backgrounder on the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available in each state.
Chart of the Week – Medicaid Expansion Reduces Hospitals’ Uncompensated Care Burden
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:
Conservative lawmakers think cuts to food stamps won’t hurt anyone. Evidence says that’s wrong.
Vox
July 7, 2017
It’s not just New Jersey and Illinois — many states are facing budget trouble
Washington Post
July 7, 2017
The GOP Has Been Trying To Change Medicaid Since Reagan
FiveThirtyEight
July 5, 2017
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