Advocates Say Proposed Medicaid Changes Would Disproportionately Hurt Vulnerable Communities

Plans circulating in Congress to modify the Medicaid health care program threaten to put millions of America’s most vulnerable citizens – minorities, seniors, children, and people with disabilities – at risk, warn civil and human rights advocates.

On
a June 9 press call, Wade Henderson, president
and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, joined Ron
Pollack, executive director of Families USA,
Tony Coelho, board chair of the American Association of People with
Disabilities and a former Congressman, Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president
of State and National Group at AARP, and Linda Guzman, a single parent from
Chapel Hill, N.C, to call attention to the negative effects of proposals such as a balanced budget amendment, global spending caps
or turning Medicaid into block grant program,
which would severely restrict the ability of states to structure
Medicaid programs effectively.

“Medicaid
is one of the most important health care, anti-poverty and civil rights
programs in American history,” Henderson said. “When it comes to safeguarding
vulnerable populations, Medicaid—along with Social Security and Medicare—is one
of the bedrock elements of a just society, and one that every American has a
stake in protecting.” 

Covering
about 58 million people, Medicaid provides essential health coverage to low- to
moderate-income children, parents and pregnant women, seniors, and people with
disabilities. The program is widely viewed as a successful anti-poverty
measure.

But
federal
budget plans put forward by Representative Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would
dramatically restructure the Medicaid program by converting it to a block grant
and sharply cutting its funding.

Listen
to a
recording of the press call and see an issue
brief outlining the potential impact of the Ryan plan on Medicaid.