Even Steve Bannon Knows Cutting Medicaid Is a Mega-Risk
It's politically dicey for Republicans to slash a health-care program that covers 1 in 4 Americans and half of US children.
Even Bannon said the quiet part out loud.
Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Republicans are taking a huge political gamble as they try to find money for tax cuts by threatening to slash Medicaid. As Congress has learned repeatedly, most recently in 2018, when the party in power messes with Americans’ health care, things don’t go well for them in midterm elections.
Medicaid covers more than 72 million people across the country — about one in four Americans overall, and about half of all children. It disproportionately covers people with disabilities, the low-income elderly, and anyone needing long term care. And it fills in the gaps for millions of people who need mental health and nursing home services that aren’t otherwise covered by health insurance. Polls show the public health insurance program is viewed favorably by 77% of all Americans, and 84% of those on the program.