Make Them Hear You! Healthcare Cuts

Make Them Hear You! is a weekly feature on KGNU, produced by Chris Mohr, letting listeners know how they can have their voices heard on issues up before Congress. You can hear it Wednesday mornings at 8.20am during the Morning Magazine.

Donald Trump has just agreed to sell $350 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and has decided to ignore human rights as a factor in foreign policy. He boasted that the massive increase in arms sales to the Saudis will mean more jobs, just as he brags that gutting environmental regulations will bring more jobs.
Back here at home, the Trump budget for 2018 and beyond has just been released. Here’s how it will impact your health. It will include $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade. He is also asking Congress for major spending cuts in medical research, disease prevention and health insurance for the 5.6 million children of the working poor.

The National Cancer Institute gets a $1 billion cut, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will lose over half a billion, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases loses almost a billion. The National Institutes of Health all told will lose $6 billion, a cut of over 20%. The EPA budget will drop over 30%, and that too will affect our health. And the Affordable Care Act will see deep cuts in subsidies when it is replaced.

AID and STD prevention will see drastic cuts, as will programs to prevent diabetes, heart disease, stroke and obesity. The Center on Birth Defects will see a 20% cut in spite of the ongoing Zika crisis. The Food and Drug Administration will see a 30% cut. That just about covers everyone, doesn’t it?
Our Senator Cory Gardner has already publicly opposed the Medicaid cuts in the new healthcare bills. Senator John Cornyn of Texas says the Trump budget is a nonstarter. Other Republicans, concerned about the 2018 election, are eyeing this budget with skepticism as they analyze the health effects of the Trump budget cuts on their own constituents.

The budget also calls for block grants to help cover medical costs. But states will have much less money to work with from the federal government than they do now, and will have to shoulder much bigger costs or just cut back on health assistance.

The Trump budget was just released this week. We have been talking about the impact this budget will have on the nation’s health, but there is much more to look at here. If you are concerned about the Trump budget and its potential impact on our health, you can contact your representative or senators and share your concerns.