{"id":47930,"date":"2025-07-30T16:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/47930\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:27:12","slug":"trumps-big-bill-chisels-back-medicaid-60-years-after-its-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/47930\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s big bill chisels back Medicaid 60 years after its creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation into law<\/a> that launched Medicaid, creating a U.S. health care safety net for millions of low-income Americans in what would become one of the crowning achievements of his domestic legacy.<\/p>\n

A year earlier, he did the same for food stamps, drawing on President John F. Kennedy\u2019s first executive order<\/a> for the development of \u201ca positive food and nutrition program for all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, with the stroke of a pen<\/a>, President Donald Trump began to chisel them back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House, July 4, 2025, in Washington, surrounded by members of Congress. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House, July 4, 2025, in Washington, surrounded by members of Congress. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

The Republican Party\u2019s big tax and spending bill<\/a> delivered not just $4.5 trillion in tax breaks<\/a> for Americans but some of the most substantial changes to the landmark safety net programs<\/a> in their history. The trade-off will cut more than $1 trillion over a decade from federal health care and food assistance, largely by imposing work requirements on those receiving aid and by shifting certain federal costs onto the states.<\/p>\n

While Republicans in Congress argue the trims are needed to rightsize the federal programs that have grown over the decades and to prevent rising federal deficits<\/a>, they are also moving toward a long-sought GOP goal of shrinking the federal government<\/a> and the services it provides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making the first changes to the welfare state in generations,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> said in a recent podcast interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the tax breaks and spending cuts law<\/a> begins to take shape, it is unleashing a new era of uncertainty for the safety net programs that millions of people<\/a> in communities across the nation have grown to depend on, with political ramifications to come. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Pediatrician<\/p>\n

Pediatrician Irving Phillips, left, examines a 16-month-old boy at a CommuniCARE+OLE clinic Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Davis, Calif. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n

Pediatrician Irving Phillips, left, examines a 16-month-old boy at a CommuniCARE+OLE clinic Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Davis, Calif. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Big safety net changes ahead<\/p>\n

Polling shows most U.S. adults<\/a> don\u2019t think the government is overspending on the programs. Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Local governments are scrambling to figure out how they will comply with the new landscape, calculating whether they will need to raise their own taxes to cover costs, trim budgets elsewhere or cut back the aid provided to Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cuts are really big, they are really broad and they are deeply damaging,\u201d said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a research institute in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences are millions of people losing health care coverage,\u201d she said. \u201cMillions of people losing food assistance. And the net result of that is higher poverty, more hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, certain people who receive aid, including parents of teenagers and older Americans up to age 64, will have to prepare to work, engage in classes or do community service<\/a> for 80 hours a month to meet new requirements.<\/p>\n

All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office<\/a> estimates 10 million more people<\/a> will end up without health insurance. Some 3 million fewer people will participate in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really concerned what this means for their fiscal health,\u201d said Mark Ritacco, chief governmental affairs officer at the National Association of Counties, which held its annual conference the week after Trump signed the bill into law.<\/p>\n

The organization had pushed senators to delay the start dates for some Medicaid changes, and it hopes that further conversations with lawmakers in Congress can prevent some of them from ever taking hold. At its conference, questions swirled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about Medicaid and SNAP \u2014 these are people\u2019s lives and livelihoods,\u201d Ritacco said.<\/p>\n

GOP bill trims back health care and food aid<\/p>\n

Republicans insist the law is adhering to Trump\u2019s vow not to touch Medicaid<\/a> as the changes root out waste, fraud and abuse<\/a>. A memo from the House GOP\u2019s campaign arm encourages lawmakers to focus on the popularity of its new work requirements and restrictions on benefits for certain immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose safety nets are meant for a small population of people \u2014 the elderly, disabled, young pregnant women who are single,\u201d the House speaker said on \u201cThe Benny Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the years since the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, came into law, \u201ceverybody got on the wagon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these young, able-bodied, young men who don\u2019t have dependents, riding the wagon,\u201d the speaker said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In this image taken from video, Amanda Hinton speaks about work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during an interview, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at the Samaritan Center food pantry in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo\/David A. Lieb)<\/p>\n

In this image taken from video, Amanda Hinton speaks about work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during an interview, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at the Samaritan Center food pantry in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo\/David A. Lieb)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Medicaid then and now<\/p>\n

When President Johnson established Medicaid alongside Medicare \u2014 the health care program for seniors \u2014 as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, it was meant for low-income families as well as the disabled.<\/p>\n

And it quickly took off. Almost every state signed on to participate in Medicaid by 1970, according to the KFF, an organization focused on health policy. It soon went beyond covering its core population to include pregnant women, school-age children and not just the very poor but also those with incomes just over the federal poverty limit, which is now about $15,650 annually for a single person and $26,650 for a family of three.<\/p>\n

In the 15 years since the Affordable Care Act<\/a> became law under President Barack Obama, Medicaid has grown substantially as most states opted to join the federal expansion. Some 80 million adults and children are covered.<\/p>\n

While the uninsured population has tumbled, the federal costs of providing Medicaid have also grown, to more than $880 billion a year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of effects Medicaid has on health, but the most stark thing that it does is that it saves lives,\u201d said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist and public policy professor at the University of Chicago who co-authored a pivotal study assessing the program.<\/p>\n

The law\u2019s changes will certainly save the federal government \u201ca substantial amount of money,\u201d he said, but that will come at \u201csubstantial increases in mortality. And you have to decide what you value more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food stamps, which had been offered toward the end of the Great Depression but were halted during World War II amid rationed supplies, launched as a federal program when Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act of 1964 into law.<\/p>\n

Today, SNAP provides almost $200 in monthly benefits per person to some 40 million recipients nationwide.<\/p>\n

Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a>, who delivered the longest speech<\/a> in House history while trying to stall the bill, said the changes will hurt households and communities nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are these people?\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cRipping health care away from the American people. The largest cuts in Medicaid in American history. Ripping food out of the mouths of children, seniors and veterans who are going to go hungry as a result of this one big, ugly bill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation into law that launched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,8833,37477,28,157,1340,3505,12,793,787,97,28030,794,37475,13410,3,111,37476,795,3438,21,9291,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-47930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-bruce-d-meyer","tag-business","tag-chicago","tag-congress","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-programs","tag-health","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-lyndon-johnson","tag-mark-ritacco","tag-mike-johnson","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sharon-parrott","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}