The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Medicaid

  • Newswire: Black women in rural areas grapple with stark decline in obstetric care

    Newswire: Black women in rural areas grapple with stark decline in obstetric care

    by Ashleigh Fields, Special to the AFRO

    Black women in rural areas are facing the brunt of declining medical services, including access to obstetric care as new policies threaten clinic and hospital closure.

    Under the current White House administration’s summer spending package, federal reimbursement for services covered through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act severely declined leaving rural healthcare providers to fend for themselves amid pressing patient concerns.

    “The risks facing women in rural communities is due to hardship in receiving routine screenings and also access for treatment if conditions/diseases arise. Also, in rural areas there are few specialists,” Dr. Sonya Buchanan, a preventative medicine physician and Meharry Medical College graduate, told the AFRO.

    “Most specialists practice in larger cities with larger populations. Commuting to and from for treatment of chronic illnesses or cancer may not be possible for a number of reasons including financial, logistics or missing time from work,” she added.

    In response to the 47th president’s spending bill, Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams (D) introduced the Maternal Health Equity Under Medicaid Act to raise federal matching rates to 90 percent for Medicaid expenditures on maternal healthcare.

    Nearly 1 in 5 or 20 percent of rural adults and 40 percent of rural children rely on Medicaid or Children Health Insurance Program. Amid cost concerns, rural Americans also face geographic challenges that present threats to healthcare.
    Most live an average of 10.5 miles from the nearest hospital, versus just 4.4 miles for their urban counterparts, according to the National Rural Health Association.

    “Medicaid is the largest payer of maternity care in this country and must be part of the solution to the maternal health crisis. Too many people are still falling through cracks in our healthcare system, especially Black mamas who continue to face a worsening maternal health crisis,” Williams said in a statement noting that 42 percent of births are financed by Medicaid.

    Still, women who enroll in Medicaid in their third trimester have a 4.7 times higher likelihood of experiencing maternal mortality and a 1.5 times higher risk for infant mortality, according to her office.
    “Raising the federal match for maternal care will give states the resources they need to expand care and save lives. As Republicans threaten devastating Medicaid cuts, this legislation is a clear statement: we must invest in care, not cruelty,” the Georgia lawmaker said.

    As of 2022, more than two-thirds of rural hospitals in eight states were without obstetric services, according to a Health Affairs study. From 2010- 2022, 12 states also reported the loss of 25 percent or more obstetric services in rural hospitals.

    “The mass closures of obstetric wings in rural hospitals have been a major issue for years now. In North Carolina, 40 percent of our counties have no facilities at all for maternity care. The passage of the Big Beautiful Bill—I like to call it the Big Ugly Bill—is only going to make these issues so much worse. Labor and delivery units are often the first to get cut when hospital budgets get low,” Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) told the AFRO.

    “This bill made major cuts to Medicaid dollars, which hospitals rely on to stay afloat. It also created new restrictions making it more difficult to remain eligible for Medicaid,” she added.
    The United States remains the only developed country with a rising maternal mortality rate, according to UNICEF, with deaths skewed towards women of color.

    Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications and twice as likely to lose an infant to premature death. Women in rural communities are threatened the most.

    All 50 states were given access to the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund, which provides over $100,000 to strengthen and modernize health care in rural communities across the country.

    “While it won’t fully alleviate the burden of these Medicaid cuts, our state will be using some of these dollars to keep rural hospitals in business and expand maternity care access in our state, focusing on non-medical barriers to care, too,” Rep. Adams said.

    “Let’s be honest, though—this is a band-aid to our country’s Black maternal health crisis. We need comprehensive legislation to address it, like the Momnibus Act, which we’re reintroducing soon with Rep. Underwood and Sen. Booker. We need major action soon, because our country is reaching a boiling point, and our moms deserve better,” Adams continued.

    The Momnibus Act is a package of 13-bill acts that address social determinants, mental health, workforce diversification, and data collection, with over $1 billion in proposed investments dedicated to solving the maternal mortality crisis.

    While lawmakers address issues through policy, doulas have also been stepping in to bridge the gap by providing travel services to address the lack of care in rural communities.

    “Historically, doulas were responsible for assisting those giving birth and midwives, and were often among the few enslaved individuals who were allowed to travel due to the indispensability of their services. However, as births moved into hospitals, the non-clinical support system declined — removing an invaluable service for expectant mothers, particularly those within communities disproportionately affected by maternal mortality rates and limited access to medical care and birthing services,” according to Valerie Rochester, chief health equity officer at Creating Healthier Communities (CHC).

  • Newswire: Advocates revitalize push for Medicaid Expansion in Alabama

    Newswire: Advocates revitalize push for Medicaid Expansion in Alabama

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. – More than 50 advocates with the Cover Alabama coalition came to the Alabama State House on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, to urge their lawmakers to expand Medicaid. The advocates highlighted a new analysis from Families USA, a nationwide nonprofit consumer health advocacy and policy organization.

    Alabama is losing $181.6 million in 2026 by covering millions in state health care spending that otherwise could be paid for by the federal government under Medicaid expansion, according to the new Families USA report. Medicaid expansion would generate $71.8 million in net savings for Alabama this year, the report estimated. And that amount would not include additional revenue from economic activity resulting from expansion.

    The report points to numerous potential funding sources that could help the state address our health care crisis. These include increasing the state cigarette tax and closing an income tax loophole that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest households.

    “Alabama can’t afford not to expand Medicaid,” said Debbie Smith, Alabama Arise’s Cover Alabama campaign director. “The most costly option is doing nothing.”

    160,000+ Alabamians are in state’s health coverage gap

    Tens of thousands of Alabamians have seen soaring costs this year for Marketplace health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These price increases came after Congress failed to renew enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs) that make plans more affordable. The increases also came on the heels of other significant federal cuts to health care in HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

    Many Alabamians have elected to drop health insurance altogether after losing the ePTCs. An estimated 161,000 adults statewide fall into the “coverage gap,” meaning they earn too much to qualify for Alabama Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance on their own. Expanding Medicaid could ensure coverage for more than 150,000 of these Alabamians. That is roughly equivalent to the combined capacities of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and Protective Stadium in Birmingham.

    “In states that have expanded Medicaid, we’ve seen a 6% to 9% increase in the workforce. Just because people can make choices to support themselves and their families,” said Mary-Beth Malcarney, Families USA’s senior adviser on Medicaid policy.

    Presenters at Tuesday’s event included Smith, Malcarney and Formeeca Tripp, Alabama Arise’s senior regional organizer. Many attendees also described their own health care experiences and explained why they support Medicaid expansion in Alabama.

    “No one should have to decide between rent or medicine,” one advocate shared.

    Cover Alabama is a nonpartisan alliance of more than 130 advocacy groups, businesses, community organizations, consumer groups, health care providers and religious congregations advocating for Alabama to provide quality, affordable health coverage to its residents and implement a sustainable health care system.

  • Newswire : How Ugly Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”really is

    By Black Press USA Staff

    During Trump’s address to Congress in January, State of the People organizers, activists and journalists stood up a 24 -hour streaming channel. As the Senate and House debate Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” State of the People is broadcasting a marathon on its YouTube channel to fully inform the public on the devastating impact of Trump’s bill. From State of the People, here are some ways in which the legislation will impact our communities:

    Broke: Money, Jobs, Economy
    This bill cuts $1.3 trillion in food assistance and health coverage while giving the wealthy that exact amount in tax breaks.
    It adds $3.25 trillion to the national debt which will weaken our economy at a time we can’t afford it.
    Kills jobs and increases energy costs: Puts 1.75 million construction jobs at risk — with unions warning, “this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of the country”
    Puts 2 million clean energy jobs at risk and increases energy bills by hundreds of dollars across the country
    Trump and the GOP’s budget is the most regressive tax scheme in at least the last 40 years — possibly ever.  The bill will “actively transfer” money from the poorest Americans into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy
    The impact of the “cuts” they are talking about is really a transfer of wealth reduce incomes among the poorest 20% of Americans by 3.8%, while increasing the incomes of the richest 20% by 3.7%

    Sick: Healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA; Veterans
    • Rips away health care from over 16 million Americans through over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act — including the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
    • These Medicaid cuts are going to reach down into every corner of our nation’s health care system.
    • Puts over 300 rural hospitals at risk of shutting down, ripping away critical, lifesaving care from hundreds of rural communities across the country.
    Seniors will lose care at home and be left with fewer nursing homes and fewer nurses.
    Kids with disabilities will lose home care.
    And never before has there been legislation so focused on denying care to eligible Americans by adding more red tape, and making it harder for anyone who relies on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
    More than 37 million children are enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal program that provides affordable health insurance to pregnant mothers and children who live just above Medicaid’s poverty threshold.
    Combined, Medicaid and CHIP protect nearly half of all children in the United States, beginning with important prenatal care, covering over 40% of U.S. births as well as nearly half of all rural births, and continuing to insure millions of vulnerable children into young adulthood.

    Veterans: Over 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA health care, and millions more rely on Medicaid, Medicare, or ACA coverage to fill gaps — these cuts will gut their care and overwhelm an already strained VA system.

    About 1 in 10 veterans rely on Medicaid — especially post-9/11 veterans, low-income veterans, and those living in rural areas where VA facilities are limited.
    Veterans of color, women veterans, and disabled veterans are disproportionately impacted, as they are more likely to be dual-eligible for VA and public health programs now on the chopping block.
    These cuts would force many veterans to delay care, forgo treatment, or drown in medical debt — all while funding more weapons and war.

    Hungry: Taking food assistance away from our kids and communities
    5 million Americans lose food assistance (Congressional Budget Office SNAP projections)
    Work requirements expanded to age 64 (House Republican reconciliation bill text)
    New red tape around the child tax credit, making it harder to qualify for some of the benefits like school lunch programs and SNAP
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP helps pay for groceries for more than 15 million children in the U.S. (USDA)
    Could force some states to end their SNAP programs. Over the last 50 years, SNAP’s nationwide availability has largely eliminated severe hunger and malnutrition throughout the United States. This bill walks away from the long-standing, bipartisan, and national commitment to food assistance that made that possible.

    Additional Impacts:

    Endangers our communities by making it easier to buy dangerous firearms and silencers
    The administration proposes a 43.6% decrease in HUD program funding, from $77.0 billion to $43.5 billion. This includes a $26.7 billion cut from federal rental assistance programs as the responsibility for rental assistance would shift to the states. The proposal also eliminates the $3.3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, designed to support community infrastructure, public facilities, and programming.
    The Department of Health and Human Services budget would be reduced by 26.2%, from $127.0 billion to $93.8 billion. Within this, a new $500 million fund would support the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, designed to allow HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address nutrition, medication, and food and drug quality.
    A reform of the National Institutes of Health would reduce its budget by $18.0 million, requiring the closure of the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Nursing Research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget would also drop $3.6 billion.
    Another $4.0 billion would be cut by ending the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program operated by the Administration for Children & Families.
    Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs (-$646 million)

  • No Kings Rally held in Selma

    Part of the No Kings Rally in Selma

    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    On Saturday, June 14, a multi-racial group of over one hundred people gathered on the west side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for a ‘No Kings’ Rally to protest the actions of the Trump Administration that harm low- and moderate-income people and help the richest people in our nation. The rally was sponsored by the Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS), Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC), and Indivisible.
    The Selma Rally was one of 13 events held in Alabama and among 2,100 held nationwide which involved 5 million people protesting Trump. This was the largest protest of an American President in history. It was held on the same day as Trump’s birthday parade in Washington D. C.
    The focus of the rallies was opposition to Trump’s immigration and deportation policies; the budget cuts in his reconciliation bill on Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP (Food Stamp and Nutrition Programs), Education, Social Security, and other programs; as well as his attacks on Democracy, Voting Rights and the Rule of Law. Another criticism is Trump’s effort to cut the social safety for vulnerable people to give massive tax cuts to the top one percent of people, multi-millionaires and billionaires in our country.
    Former State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma was the moderator of the No Kings Rally and said that the Selma site was chosen by the sponsors of the rally because of its historical significance to the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the continuance of Democracy in the United States. ”We have no room for a dictator or a self-proclaimed king in America,” he said.
    Isabella Compas of the Alabama Council for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), who said she was a child of immigrants, spoke against the actions of the Trump Administration and ICE for rounding up undocumented people from farms, working places, churches, and schools who have committed no crimes. She said that families were separated, and people were sent to detention centers in deplorable conditions. Many have been deported without due process or the chance to get legal assistance. Trump is hurting the economy by taking workers out of the fields, processing plants, hotels and construction sites where they are working to support their families without providing replacement workers.
    Martha Morgan, a retired University of Alabama law professor reported on the many legal challenges to the Trump Administration’s illegal and un-constitional actions. She reported that there are trackers on the Internet monitoring all of the legal actions against Trump. There have been 220 lawsuits so far, 73 have been successful at the initial level. Many are under appeal to appellate courts, and most may eventually reach the Supreme Court, which although aligned 6-3 with conservative members has decided some cases against Trump.
    Another speaker was Annie Pearl Avery, a veteran SNCC civil rights worker, who march across the bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. She said, “We cannot give up fighting or Trump will set us back to before the Civil Rights Movement.”
    Faya Rose Toure spoke at the rally holding some Confederate flags that the Daughters of the Confederacy had placed at public places. Faya Rose said she goes around pulling up the flags. “The Confederate flag is a symbol of defiance against the government. Trump would li8ke to take us back to slavery and Jim Crow. We are here today because we cannot allow him to take us back.”
    John Zippert with SOS and the Greene County Health System Board of Directors spoke on the implications of the Trump Medicaid and Medicare budget cuts which will eliminate health care coverage for 15 million people and lead to the closure of many more rural hospitals.
    Azali Fortier, a sophomore at Spellman College and native of Selma, spoke of the concerns of young people facing budget cuts in education for Pell Grants, scholarship, research grants and the banning of books about Black studies. “ We are also worried about the budget cuts on the safety net programs and the attacks on democracy,” she said.
    Charles Flaherty of Marion, Alabama, said this was his first protest rally in fifty years, about the same basic democratic rights, but it will not be my last.
    Near the end of the rally, Hank Sanders asked people at the rally to say where they were from and why they came. For half of the people, including some young people, said this was the first public political rally they had ever participated in. There were several Federal workers who were dismissed and others who were fearful of losing their jobs, under Trump’s directives. Several veterans in the group expressed that they were having problems with securing health care and other benefits from the Veterans Administration
    At the end of the rally, the sponsors urged the attendees to call and write their Senators and Congresspersons about their concerns about budget cuts and attacks on democracy. People were urged to write letters to the editor of their local newspapers. The people were also urged to talk to their neighbors and friends about attending the next rally against Trump to make it even larger and more impactful.
    The next rally in this series is scheduled for July 17, 2025, the “Good Trouble Lives On” to commemorate the work of the late congressman and Civil Rights leader, John Lewis, on the date of his death. The Transformational Justice Coalition will be the national sponsor. More information will be available on their website and the NoKIngs.org website as well.

  • Medicaid, Medicare in Alabama would face cuts under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”

    Nonpartisan health policy institution KFF estimated 170,000 Alabamians will become uninsured if the “Big Beautiful Bill” is signed into law.

    By Chance Phillips, Alabama Political Reporters


    The budget proposal passed by House Republicans last Thursday, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would seriously reduce health insurance coverage in Alabama, according to several nonpartisan reports.
    On May 20, before a round of last-minute amendments was approved, nonpartisan health policy organization KFF estimated the bill would render around 53,000 more Alabamians uninsured. And if the current version is passed, which allows the ACA enhanced premium tax credits to expire, KFF placed the number of Alabamians that would be left without healthcare at around 170,000.
    Most of the cuts in healthcare funding would take the form of reducing spending on Medicaid, the United States’ health insurance program for low-income households, by $625 billion over ten years. This cut would largely be due to imposing novel work requirements on people who receive Medicaid because of the expansion of the program by the Affordable Care Act. States would also be required to establish and verify recipients’ eligibility more often.
    As a result of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, the budget could also trigger an automatic 4 percent cut to most Medicare spending due to trillions in lost tax revenue, drastically increasing the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this would mean a cut to Medicare of “$490 billion over the 2027–2034 period.”

    Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, maintains that claims the bill would cut Medicaid are “misinformation.” In a recent CNN interview, he explicitly said Republicans “are not cutting Medicaid in this package. With work requirements and other changes, we are cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.”

    However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the changes to Medicaid are likely to leave over 10 million people nationwide off of the program by 2034, with almost 8 million being left totally uninsured.

    During a press call last week, Allison Orris, director of Medicaid policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, compared the proposed new work requirements to ones implemented in the state of Arkansas in 2018 and 2019. She said that “even though there were a number of exemptions for people with disabilities, for people with chronic conditions, for certain parents, people still lost coverage in Arkansas and the exemption process didn’t work.” Orris then declared that House Republicans’ work requirements are “even worse” than the ones tried in Arkansas.
    Effects of the proposed changes to Medicaid, however, are likely to vary significantly with how much state governments are willing to use their tax dollars to replace federal funding, as well as when and how stringently states would enforce the new work requirements.
    As one of only a few states that has not expanded Medicaid, Alabama appears almost certain to have a conservative response to any federal cuts to social safety net programs. During the most recent legislative session, state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, already introduced two bills to further restrict eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid, but they failed to pass before sine die adjournment.

    While the budget passed by the House would balloon the federal deficit, increasing federal debt by as much as $3.3 trillion by 2034, Republican politicians maintain that changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are needed to both get people employed and reduce federal expenditures.

    Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Mehmet Oz, and two other Trump administration officials argued in an opinion piece in The New York Times earlier this month that work requirements are now a necessity. “For able-bodied adults, welfare should be a short-term hand-up, not a lifetime handout,” they wrote. “But too many able-bodied adults on welfare are not working at all. And too often we don’t even ask them to. For many, welfare is no longer a lifeline to self-sufficiency but a lifelong trap of dependency.”

    In a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Mike Johnson told reporter Margaret Brennan that “there’s a moral component to what we’re doing.” He emphasized that people who don’t work despite being able to are “cheating the system.

    Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville recently made a similar argument during a May 12 appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” where he said people living off of social safety net programs has “got to be over with.”

    But experts like Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project and political science professor, Anne Whitesell, say that data shows there are very few able-bodied adults on programs like Medicaid and SNAP who could be working and aren’t already. “Given past experience with work requirements, it is unlikely [savings on Medicaid] would come from Americans finding jobs,” Whitesell writes. “My research suggests it’s more likely that the government would trim spending by taking away the health insurance of people eligible for Medicaid coverage who get tangled up in red tape.”

    Alabama’s two Democratic members of Congress, Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures, have repeatedly criticized the proposed cuts. Sewell proposed an amendment on Wednesday to increase the ACA tax credits that the current bill allows to expire. Her amendment was not adopted.
    Having already passed the House of REpresentatives, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now needs to be approved by the Senate before it can be signed into law. While a reconciliation package only requires a simple majority to pass, the budget proposal may not sail through the chamber as is.

     

  • Picket Line and Rally against Trump Administration to be held Saturday, April 5th at Eutaw Post Office, 10:00 AM to Noon

    You are invited to a Picket Line and Rally, this Saturday, April 5, 2025, at the Eutaw Post Office, 227 Prairie Avenue. This is a protest against the polices and actions of the Trump Administration, during its first 75 days in office.
    This public witness of dissatisfaction with Trump-Vance-Musk, at a Federal building in Eutaw, Alabama, is open to anyone who is angry, frustrated and feels betrayed by our national government.
    This Greene County demonstration is part of a larger national and international “Hands Off Our Democracy” protest going on in hundreds of places across America and the world this Saturday, April 5, 2025.
    This is a grassroots response to the power-grab by millionaires and billionaires, like Trump, Vance, Musk and their MAGA supporters, of our Constitutional rights, benefit programs and ultimately of our democracy.
    In recent weeks, the Trump-Vance-Musk regime has unfairly fired thousands of needed Federal workers; unlawfully closed whole agencies and departments, USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Department of Education and others; suspended and questioned contracts with CBO’s because they are implementing policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

    Trump and his associates are also trying to cut Federal programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, National Parks, Smithsonian Museums, SNAP (food stamps), WIC, Food Banks, school lunches and post offices serving working and poor people. Many of these actions have been taken to provide funding for tax cuts to the top 1% of wealthy people in our country, who do not need tax cuts and should be paying their fair share.

    Trump is also working to take your voting rights; women’s reproductive rights; deporting hundreds of immigrants, who are our neighbors; changing foreign policy to abandon Canada, Mexico and Europe for an alliance with Putin, the Russian dictator; abandoning climate change and environmental justice; and trying to eliminate our Constitution and end our Democracy.

    If you are affected and displeased with any of these policies and unlawful actions, come and join us on Saturday morning, at the Eutaw Post Office and let people see that we are resisting and protesting the Trump-Vance-Musk Administration. This is your chance to show your opposition to the things Trump and his MAGA supporters are doing to America. This is your chance to show that small rural communities, as well as big cities, do not support and want to reverse the policies, cutbacks and unjustifiable and unlawful policies of the Trump Administration.

    This protest is open to all that oppose and want to resist Trump-Vance-Musk. Bring your own handmade sign, protesting the parts of the Trump agenda you most disagree with. Sign up for future actions and protests.

    For more information, contact the Publishers of the Greene County Democrat at 205-372-3373 or by 205-657-0273.

  • Newswire : House Republican budget plan targets vital services, hits Black and marginalized communities hardest

    Food store with accepting SNAP – food stamps

    By Stacy M. Brown
    NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


    The House Republican budget passed Tuesday proposes sweeping cuts to health care, food assistance, and education programs, aiming to fund $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade. The cuts include $880 billion from Medicaid, $230 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and $330 billion from student loan programs through 2034. These reductions come amid a push to extend the 2017 Trump-era tax cuts and other tax relief measures benefiting wealthy households and corporations.
    According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the cost of extending tax breaks for the top 1% of earners—amounting to $1.1 trillion through 2034—mirrors the proposed Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Wealthy households making $743,000 or more annually would receive an average tax cut of $62,000, exceeding the median income of most of the 72 million people covered by Medicaid.
    House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized the proposal, stating, “The House Republican budget resolution will set in motion the largest Medicaid cut in American history.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called the plan “a blueprint for American decline” that prioritizes billionaires over working families.
    The proposed cuts would disproportionately affect Black, Latino, Indigenous, and rural communities, which have higher rates of poverty and reliance on programs like Medicaid and SNAP. The Kaiser Family Foundation states that over 80 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. Cuts to these programs could force states to shoulder more costs, leaving millions uninsured.
    The budget would also end enhancements to the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits, raising health care premiums for more than 20 million people. Student loan borrowers face higher repayment costs, further burdening low-income families.
    While the House plan calls for increased border security and military spending, its projected tax cuts—renewing the Trump tax cuts and implementing no taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security—would swell the federal deficit. Despite these cuts, the budget projects the national debt limit will be reached by November 2026.
    Only Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voted against the budget, citing concerns over worsening deficits. “If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better,” Massie posted on social media.

  • Newswire : Biden and Harris fight back against House Republicans’ budget threatening health care

    Patient being counseled at medical facility

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Resolute in their stand against the recent budget proposal by House Republicans, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are intensifying their efforts to lower healthcare costs and safeguard crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, and Medicare.

    In a Fact Sheet, the White House noted that Biden and Harris underscored the administration’s commitment during a visit to North Carolina, where they outlined a comprehensive strategy to make health care more affordable for all Americans.

    “The draconian measures in the Republican budget, which the Republican Study Committee created and which the House Republican leadership supported, have alarmed people because they could destroy crucial health care programs,” administration officials said. Among its provisions, the budget seeks to slash a staggering $4.5 trillion from the ACA, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, potentially leaving millions of Americans without access to essential health coverage.
    Key aspects of the Republican budget include eliminating funding for the ACA’s Marketplace and Medicaid expansion, jeopardizing coverage for over 45 million individuals. Furthermore, the proposed transformation of Medicaid into block grants “could imperil the health care of an additional 60 million Americans, leading to increased difficulty in qualifying for coverage and potential cuts to critical benefits,” officials argued.
    The budget threatens the well-being of seniors and individuals with disabilities by proposing cuts to Medicaid home care services and nursing home payments, which could result in diminished care quality and longer waitlists for essential services.
    In addition to dismantling crucial consumer protections established by the ACA, such as coverage for pre-existing conditions and prohibitions against insurance company abuses, officials said the Republican budget would also convert Medicare into a “premium support” program, potentially raising premiums for millions of seniors and exacerbating prescription drug costs.
    “Contrary to this regressive agenda, President Biden and Vice President Harris are staunch advocates for expanding access to affordable health care,” officials asserted. “Under their leadership, a record-breaking 21 million Americans have enrolled in ACA coverage this year, marking a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to extend health care to more citizens.”
    The White House argued that the administration’s initiatives have yielded tangible benefits, including average annual savings of $800 per individual on health insurance premiums. They claimed that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden championed, has given Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prescription drug costs, ensuring that seniors and people with disabilities can access affordable medications.
    Biden and Harris insisted they are committed to further lowering healthcare costs and enhancing coverage for all Americans. Their proposed measures include:
    Making premium tax credits permanent.
    Expanding Medicaid coverage in states that have not adopted expansion.
    Investing in home care services to address wait lists for older adults and individuals with disabilities.

    White House officials said the president and vice president’s agenda prioritizes mental health care access, consumer protection against surprise medical bills, and crackdowns on unwarranted fees in health care services. By advocating for Medicare to negotiate drug prices for at least 50 drugs annually and capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, the administration aims to alleviate financial burdens on individuals while safeguarding the integrity of health care programs.
    In contrast to the Republican budget’s assault on health care, officials asserted that Biden and Harris remain steadfast in their commitment to protecting and strengthening vital health care programs for generations to come. “By ensuring that the wealthy contribute their fair share and dedicating savings from Medicare reforms to the program’s sustainability, they seek to uphold the fundamental right to accessible and affordable health care for all Americans,” officials said.

     

     

  • Newswire: Social Security benefits to increase despite Republican calls for reform

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


    In the face of increasing pressure from elected Republican officials to reform safety net programs, the Social Security Administration has announced a 3.2% increase in benefits for 2024. Starting December 29, recipients of Social Security will see an average boost of $50 per month in their retirement benefits, a change attributed to the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) calculated based on inflation readings from July, August, and September.
    “Social Security and SSI benefits will increase in 2024, and this will help millions of people keep up with expenses,” stated Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of Social Security.
    The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which showed increases of 2.6% in July, 3.4% in August, and 3.6% in September, is where the adjustment comes from.
    Despite this positive news for Social Security beneficiaries, a political battle looms over the long-term fate of these crucial programs. During the 2022 campaign season, several Republican incumbents, and candidates, including Florida Sen. Rick Scott and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, advocated for significant changes, including cuts and the need for annual funding reauthorization.
    Scott’s 11-point legislative agenda included a provision proposing the expiration of all federal laws every five years, which he argued would best serve to “preserve those programs.” Johnson, who narrowly won reelection, called for transforming all mandatory spending into discretionary funds, asserting this would enable better evaluation and problem-solving for programs facing financial strain.
    Unsuccessful GOP Senate candidates in various states also floated proposals to end at least one of the programs through privatization or significant cuts, highlighting a growing divide on the issue within the Republican Party.
    Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security each constitute critical pillars of support for a significant portion of the American population, particularly seniors and those with limited means. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security alone accounts for most older Americans’ monthly income, with nearly a quarter relying on it for 90% of their income.
    According to the Social Security Administration, over 67 million people received benefits in 2023, with nearly 90% of those over 65 relying on the program. Stanford University’s white paper on Social Security outlines its historical development, emphasizing its role in safeguarding retirees against financial insecurity.
    While the program remains crucial for many, the same Stanford paper highlights that demographic and economic shifts pose challenges to its long-term financial stability. The authors contend that policymakers must confront the issue and explore potential reforms to ensure the program’s continued viability.
    “Social Security is an essential program that provides critical support to millions of retirees, survivors, and disabled individuals,” the authors asserted. “While reforming Social Security is challenging, policymakers must act to address the program’s long-term funding shortfall and ensure that the program can continue to meet its important mission.”

  • Newswire : If you’re a poor person in America, Trump’s budget is not for you

    By Steven Mufson and Tracy Jan, The Washington Post

    If you’re a poor person in America, President Donald Trump’s budget proposal is not for you.
    Trump has unveiled a budget that would slash or abolish programs that have provided low-income Americans with help on virtually all fronts, including affordable housing, banking, weatherizing homes, job training, paying home heating oil bills, and obtaining legal counsel in civil matters.
    These cuts to smaller programs that are targeted to poor people are in addition to major cuts of $735 billion in Medicare, $250 billion in Medicaid and $250 billion in Social Security benefits.
    During the presidential campaign last year, Trump vowed that the solution to poverty was giving poor people incentives to work. But most of the proposed cuts in his budget target programs designed to help the working poor, as well as those who are jobless, cope.
    “This is a budget that pulled the rug out from working families and hurts the very people who President Trump promised to stand up for in rural America and in small towns,” said Melissa Boteach, vice president of the poverty to prosperity program at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington.
    The White House budget cuts will fall hardest on the rural and small town communities that Trump won, where one in three people are living paycheck to paycheck – a rate that is 24 percent higher than in urban counties, according to a new analysis by the center.
    The budget proposes housing “reforms” that add up to more than $6 billion in cuts while promising to continue assisting the nation’s 4.5 million low-income households. If enacted, the proposed budget would result in the most severe cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development since the early 1980s, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
    It would also eliminate the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the federal response to homelessness across 19 federal agencies.
    The administration’s reforms include eliminating funding for a $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, one of the longest continuously run HUD programs that’s been in existence since 1974.
    The program provides cities and rural small towns with money to address a range of community development needs such as affordable housing, rehabilitating homes in neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosures, and preventing or eliminating slums and community blight. It also provides funding for Meals on Wheels, a national nonprofit that delivers food to homebound seniors.
    Robert Rector, a senior fellow who focuses on welfare at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, calls the community block grants a “slush fund for urban government.”
    The White House touts its cuts to what the administration characterizes as “a number of lower priority programs” as a way to “promote fiscal responsibility.” In actuality, it guts federal funding for affordable housing and kicks the financial responsibility of those programs to states and local governments.
    Gone would be $35 million in funding for well-known programs such as Habitat for Humanity and YouthBuild USA, fair housing planning, and homeless assistance, among other housing help for needy Americans.
    Poor people need not lean on community banks for financial help either, because Trump plans to eliminate the $210 million now dedicated towards Community Development Financial Institutions. The program, administered through the Treasury Department, invests in community banks that provide loans and financial services to people living in some of the most distressed communities of the country.
    “Cutting that program would be nothing short of a disaster and the ripple effect would be felt in urban areas and some rural areas all over America,” said Michael A. Grant, president of the National Bankers Association, a lobbying group for black-owned banks.
    The administration would also eliminate the Energy Department’s weatherization assistance program, which dates back to 1976 when Gerald Ford was president. Since then, it has given grants to states that have helped insulate the homes of about 7 million families with low-cost techniques that have large payoffs, saving money for those families and curtailing U.S. energy consumption. It has also helped establish weatherization job training centers in states such as Utah and New York.
    Also on the chopping block: the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known widely by its acronym LIHEAP. This program, part of the Health and Human Services budget, helps homeowners cover monthly energy costs, or repair broken or inefficient furnaces and air conditioners. The program is usually underfunded; LIHEAP says that on average, only about 20 percent of the households that qualify for assistance receive benefits before the money run out. Congress sometimes adds funding during emergencies or energy shortages when costs spike.
    Trump’s proposed budget would eliminate the Community Services Block Grant, a $715-million program within HHS that funds more than 1,000 local anti-poverty organizations around the country. The organizations provide services ranging from job training to food assistance to more than 16 million people in 3,000 counties. The grants also help communities respond quickly to natural disasters, plant closures and other economic shifts.
    Without the grants, there would be little coordination between faith groups, local governments, private companies and nonprofits in addressing the needs of the poor – “just a few unconnected programs that don’t have nearly the impact they have now,” said David Bradley, who founded the National Community Action Foundation and wrote the legislation behind the grants in the early ’80s.
    The Trump budget would also target the Legal Services Corp., an independent agency that provided $343 million to 134 legal aid organizations for the poor who are tangled up in cases of wrongful eviction, custody disputes, child support or domestic violence.
    In 2015, Legal Services offices closed 755,774 cases – more than 100 for every lawyer and paralegal employed. About 70 percent of its clients are women, and the majority of its clients are white and between the ages of 36 and 59. The program provides lawyers only to people earning no more than 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline, which is currently $15,075 for an individual and $30,750 for a family of four.
    The budget would also zero out funds to help native Alaskan villages obtain access to clean drinking water and modern sewage systems.
    Cuts to the Agriculture budget also eliminates the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority that encourage economic growth in distressed rural communities. And while the budget allocates $6.2 billion to “serve all projected participants” in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children, that is $150 million less than USDA had budgeted.
    The White House proposed shrinking Job Corps, a program administered by the Labor Department that provides education and job training to more than 60,000 young and disadvantaged youth. The proposal called for closing centers that do a “poor job” of preparing students for the workforce, but did not elaborate how many of the 125 centers nationwide would be targeted.
    Job Corps, which was created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s anti-poverty agenda, helps young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 earn high school diplomas and receive vocational training.