Pat Toomey: “The Senate bill will codify and make permanent the Medicaid expansion”
“In fact we’ll have the federal government pay the lion share of the cost”
Appearing this morning on Meet the Press, Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) defended the Senate health care bill.
Pushing back against the premise that the Senate bill will destroy Medicaid and leave those who qualify for it under ObamaCare out in the cold, Toomey explained that the Senate bill “will codify and make permanent the Medicaid expansion.”
Following the release of Senate Republicans’ draft of the House GOP-passed health care bill, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, said the focus remains on Medicaid expansion while noting there are indeed challenges that remain.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but I have to strongly disagree with the characterization that we are somehow ending the Medicaid expansion. In fact, quite the contrary. The Senate bill will codify and make permanent the Medicaid expansion, and in fact we’ll have the federal government pay the lion share of the cost,” said Toomey.
He added, “Obamacare created a new category of eligibility: working-aged, able-bodied adults with no dependents for the first time became eligible for Medicaid if their income is below 138 percent of the poverty level. We’re going to continue that eligibility. No one loses coverage.”
Toomey, who helped draft the bill, went on to explain that Medicaid will continue to grow “every year” and that it will “never” be cut. This is in-line with President Trump’s campaign promises to leave Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare in tact.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/596338364187602944
CBS News continues:
Toomey, a member of the Senate Republican working group that wrote the bill, said that government spending on Medicaid will continue to grow every year and will “never” be cut.
“It will eventually be growing at a slightly slower rate, and we need that to make the program viable and to deal with these massive deficits and the mounting debt that we have,” added Toomey.
Under the current draft, Medicaid would be phased out under the bill beginning in 2021, with gradual reductions until 2024 in the amount of federal Obamacare funds that have financed the entitlement program’s expansion. The Senate bill would also slash funding to Medicaid from what Republicans call “gimmicks that drive up federal costs.” President Trump repeatedly promised during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would not cut Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security.
Watch:
The transcript can be read here.
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Comments
He says it like we should be happy about it. I’m not.
Agreed.
Nonetheless, slowing the snowball of debt down to reduce the increases in Medicaid in the coming years is a step in the right direction. I just wish we didn’t have to settle for that action…but alas free stuff voters exist.
Question for progressives: If all of these entitlements are such a great social programs to help people get back on their feet and ultimately benefit the economy, why do we have to keep increasing their funding year after year after year?
Unless you have a substantial non-Social Security Retirement income, you might be when you retire. The average Social Security recipient gets just over $1100 a month, leaving them eligible for Medicaid to pay the Medicare fees that would otherwise take 1/3-1/2 of their income.
And the reward for all of this extra saving and discipline for retirement? Extra taxes to pay for the medicaid that you won’t qualify for…instead, those medicare fees and anything else health-related will come from the money you saved.
Medicare has been pretty god for me. It covers many things. Not hearing or vision or dentistry.
Fortunately, old people don’t have these problems.
Thank god we have democrats to take care of our welfare.
It appears to me that all the GOP wants is to control the program and the cash flow.
There have been absolutely no serious efforts to shut down the program.
And I hear nothing of the good ideas such as allowing Insurance Companies to compete across State lines, or allowing Consumers to select coverage plans suited to their needs rather than having these goofy plans shoved down their throats.
So, what else could it be?
The GOP is drooling over the money and the power.
They want it for themselves. There is little hope they will give it up.
All we have to do is relentlessly vote them out. It’s that simple.
Sorry, that was a bit off-topic.
It’s exactly on target.
“In fact we’ll have the federal government pay the lion share of the cost” – what he should have said is “In fact we’ll have the American TAXPAYERS pay the lion share of the cost”
Unbelievable
toomey trying to imitate casey… God help us all, not just the commonwealth of penna.
Given that Trump’s cut off the illegal subsidies until the R’s codify them into law, isn’t it cheaper for now to stick with exploding Obamacare?
The Dems might be more amenable to reason another year or two on, and if the Reps solve it, some Dem voters might actually be grateful.
The main thing I want in a new program is that insurance companies are allowed to sell policies without preexisting condition coverage, as well as policies with that coverage.
Otherwise we’ll never see in real numbers what the HIV coverage is costing, and that was surely a big reason Obams designed the law as it is, to force everyone to pay for care of those who engaged in dangerous sex and are now HIV+.
How many people get their homeowner’s and automobile insurance through their companies? Very very few. But for some stupid reason started right after WWII we expect our health insurance to come through our employers and all of the complexity and tax crap that goes with it. If we all bought or not what we want and need on our own this whole mess would go away except for the poor who would get subsidies from the state/feds. Sure there would be a transition period but eventually, it would be buyer controlled and not government controlled.