State Flexibility: A Trojan Horse for Weakening Medicaid

Author Thomas Huelskoetter stresses that while Medicaid expansion repeal is not inevitable, President-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House with the power to fundamentally undermine the country's health care safety net.

Although the debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act is currently taking center stage, Medicaid’s turn in the spotlight is coming sooner than many realize – and the immediate threat to Medicaid expansion is just the beginning.

During the campaign, President-elect Trump promised that he would not cut Medicaid, differentiating himself from other Republican candidates. Yet his actions since the election have spoken louder than these words, as Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Price, and Speaker Paul Ryan lay the groundwork for radical changes that will gut the Medicaid program and leave millions uninsured. These attacks on our health care safety net will come on three major fronts.

The above excerpt was originally published in RealClearHealth. Click here to view the full article.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.