The health care chart you need to read to understand Trumpcare’s damage

Now that the Senate version of Trumpcare, we see that one of its central elements is the slashing of Medicaid, a program that 74% of Americans see favorably.

In the House version, which Rep. Bruce Poliquin voted for, 14 million of the 23 million losing coverage were people receiving Medicaid.

The dollars in the 25% Medicaid cut roughly equal the tax cut that overwhelmingly would go to people with the top 1% of income.

As CNBC reports, “The tax cuts include a repeal of a 3.8 percent investment tax — such as capital gains — and a 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax. Both of those apply to individuals earning $200,000 or more a year and couples earning more than $250,000.” The investment tax break is retroactive to the start of 2017.

There is also a specific tax break for the portion of insurance company executives’ incomes’ over $500,000.

This makes any claims that “we can’t afford Medicaid” to be absurd on their face. Rather, Trumpcare is a flat out transfer of wealth upward.

This chart shows who gets Medicaid and who will get hurt by the 25% cut.

Behind all of these statistics are personal stories of challenge and struggle.

Chart: Percentage of People Medicaid Covers l Source: Margot Sanger-Katz. “G.O.P. Plan is Really a Rollback of Medicaid” June 20, 2017. New York Times. Data sources for chart: Kaiser Family Foundation; Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission

Thinking about the people in the chart (source), it’s clear that others connected to them will be hurt by the cuts.

For example, the parents of the 60% of children with disabilities getting Medicaid will be hit by losing resources. They’re already dealing with a lot and will have more to contend with.

So will the families of the 64% of nursing home residents getting Medicaid, as will nursing homes themselves. Some family members will have to quit working to take care of their loved one. Some nursing homes will go out of business.

There are other aspects of the bill that are important.

There are cuts in support for people buying insurance.

The law also reduces what plans must cover and what proportion of medical costs have to be covered by insurance plans.

Those provisions will lead to huge increases in costs for many, no matter how one gets coverage.

All of that will be detailed when the CBO score is released.

So this chart doesn’t show all of the damage from Trumpcare — just one part that will be devastating to health care providers, patients and their families.

Amy Fried

About Amy Fried

Amy Fried loves Maine's sense of community and the wonderful mix of culture and outdoor recreation. She loves politics in three ways: as an analytical political scientist, a devoted political junkie and a citizen who believes politics matters for people's lives. Fried is Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. Her views do not reflect those of her employer or any group to which she belongs.