In light of proposals by Congressional Republicans to slash Medicaid funding, PHI is publishing a series of fact sheets outlining the crucial role Medicaid plays in the lives of direct-care workers and the families they care for.

The first installment of the PHI “Medicaid Matters” series focuses on Medicaid’s impact on long-term services and supports, while the second concentrates on Americans’ reactions to the proposed Medicaid cuts.

Both fact sheets address recent Congressional proposals to convert Medicaid to a block grant, which would shift the burden of paying for much of Medicaid’s costs to states, whose funds have already been decimated by the economic downturn.

Impact on Long-Term Services and Supports

The fact sheet Medicaid Matters…for Long-Term Services and Supports notes that:

• Medicaid is the largest payer of long-term services and supports for elders and people with disabilities.
• Medicaid provides health coverage to direct-care workers and their families.
• Medicaid funds millions of direct-care jobs and fuels our nation’s economy.
• Turning Medicaid into a block grant hurts America’s families.

What Medicaid Means to Americans

Medicaid Matters…to the American People, the second installment of the Medicaid Matters fact sheet series, cites several public-opinion polls indicating that Americans emphatically do not want Medicaid to be cut:

• A Kaiser Family Foundation poll from April found that just 12 percent of Americans support big cuts to Medicaid.
• A March Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 76 percent of respondents opposed the idea of cutting state Medicaid funds to balance their state’s budget.
• Respondents to a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month were told that Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and defense spending accounted for 60 percent of the federal budget — yet a majority of respondents (57 percent) still opposed any cuts to Medicaid.

Indeed, polling data continue to show Americans’ opposition to Medicaid cuts: A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released May 25 found that a majority of Americans want to keep Medicaid exactly as it is, and not make it a block grant.

– by Matthew Ozga