Trump administration continues effort to gut Medicaid

The Trump administration continues to slash healthcare, today rolling out a new plan to incentivize states to cut Medicaid funding.

And if that’s not bad enough, in addition to allowing states to cut Medicaid benefits and increasing costs for Medicaid expansion enrollees, the new administration rule allows states to deny retroactive health care coverage and payments to newly enrolled beneficiaries.

That’s some kind of thank-you for seniors who allow themselves be scared into supporting Trump because he plays up crime, immigration, terrorism, what-have-you.

Somebody else running for re-election in November, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., has a few thoughts to share.

“I am very troubled by the Medicaid demonstration program announced today by the Trump administration,” Warner said in a statement. “Instead of focusing its efforts on improving and expanding access to health care coverage, this Administration continues down the road of undermining our nation’s health care system – this time by unveiling a proposal that will disrupt access to affordable health care for millions of Americans.

More from Warner:

“It is clear the Administration is going to keep ignoring the repeated warnings of our physicians, hospitals and leading health experts across the country who have emphatically stated that such a proposal will lead to increased health care costs and reduced health care coverage. Plain and simple – this new demonstration program will allow states to cut essential and legally mandated health care benefits including coverage for behavioral health and substance use disorder, while increasing costs for other services across the board. Additionally, this rule will harm our ongoing efforts to combat the opioid and addiction epidemic and will increase the number of Americans without access to affordable health care coverage.”