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healthcare
Here's How the GOP Could Cut Over $5 Trillion—And Gut Healthcare, Climate Action
"Americans: We just want higher wages and lower costs. Republicans: We are going to take away your healthcare."
Jan 10, 2025
Some Democratic lawmakers and other critics of congressional Republicans on Friday pointed to a document obtained by Politico as just the latest evidence that the looming GOP trifecta at the federal level poses a threat to working families nationwide.
"Americans: We just want higher wages and lower costs. Republicans: We are going to take away your healthcare," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in response to the reporting, which came as Republicans have taken control of both chambers of Congress and prepare for President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in just over a week.
The one-page list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Politico reported, citing five unnamed sources. One of them explained that the "document is not intended to serve as a proposal, but instead as a menu of potential spending reductions for members to consider."
The document lists various policies that it claims would collectively cut up to $5.7 trillion. Republicans have been discussing how to offset the high costs of top priorities—specifically, Trump's immigration policies and plans for tax cuts that critics warn would largely benefit the wealthy, like the law he signed in 2017.
"In order to make his rich, billionaire buddies richer, Trump wants to kick millions off healthcare coverage and starve families. How does this help working families thrive?"
The policies are divided into eight sections, with headings that critics called "dystopian" and "Orwellian." The first calls for repealing "major" health rules from outgoing President Joe Biden's administration, which would supposedly cut $420 billion. The second section takes aim at Medicare, the federal health program for seniors, proposing policies that would cut $479 billion.
A large share of the potential cuts would come from section three, which lists seven potential changes to Medicaid, a program that provides health coverage to low-income people. The policies include per capita caps, work requirements, and lowering the federal medical assistance percentages (FMAP) floor.
"In order to make his rich, billionaire buddies richer, Trump wants to kick millions off healthcare coverage and starve families. How does this help working families thrive?" Michigan state Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-47) asked on social media. "In this leaked list of cuts, 'lower FMAP floor' for Medicaid means states pay a higher proportion of Medicaid costs for enrollees—this just shoves [federal] costs to states so billionaires get more yacht money."
Section four of the document calls for "reimagining" the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to cut $151 billion, with changes that include repealing the Prevention and Public Health Fund, limiting eligibility based on citizenship status, and reclaiming $46 billion from subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
The fifth section lays out $347 billion in cuts by "ending cradle-to-grave dependence," targeting initiatives including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called food stamps.
Section six claims "reversing Biden climate policies" would cut $468 billion: $300 billion by discontinuing some provisions from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure legislation, $112 billion by rolling back electric vehicle policies, and $56 billion by repealing green energy grants from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The seventh section is a catchall, listing up to $1 trillion in potential cuts through moves that include ending student debt forgiveness, restricting emergency spending, and reforming federal employee benefits. Section eight identifies up to $527 in potential tax offsets from requiring Social Security numbers for the child tax credit and green energy credits.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who recently agreed to use the budget reconciliation process to cut $2.5 trillion, "can't afford any Republican defections if he wants to pass a package on party lines," Politico reported. "Even proposed cuts to green energy tax credits, worth as much as $500 billion, could be tricky—as the document notes, they depend 'on political viability.' Already 18 House Republicans—14 of whom won reelection in November—warned Johnson against prematurely repealing some of the IRA's energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing projects in GOP districts."
Sharing the report on social media Friday, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) stressed that "Republicans want to cut vital food and healthcare support programs to pay for a tax cut for billionaires and large corporations. The GOP wants working families to pay for their billionaire handouts."
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Oregon Medical Workers Launch Largest Healthcare Strike in State History
Over 5,000 frontline healthcare professionals walked off the job at Providence hospitals and clinics across the Beaver State.
Jan 10, 2025
Thousands of Oregon medical caregivers at Providence hospitals launched what organizers are calling the largest healthcare strike in state history Friday as they fight for improved patient care, fair wages, and better working conditions in their new contract.
Around 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and other healthcare professionals began their indefinite strike at 6:00 am local time Friday, Oregon Public Broadcastingreported. Workers walked off the job at Providence hospitals including: St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Providence Portland, Providence Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Providence Milwaukie, Providence Hood River, Providence Seaside, Providence Newberg, and Providence Medford. Numerous clinics are also affected.
Striking nurses are seeking higher wages, better nurse-to-patient ratios, more paid time off, and lower out-of-pocket costs on their healthcare plans. Doctors want Providence to cap hospital admissions when patient numbers climb too high.
"We're asking for competitive compensation that reflects the reality of our work, the long hours, the emotional toll, and the ever-growing demands that are placed on us," Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) member Gina Ottinger, a registered nurse, told the Oregon Capital Chronicle on Friday. "We're asking for wages that keep pace with inflation."
Healthcare workers' unions are also asking for employment guarantees should Providence sell off their hospitals. The unions have also flagged contract alignment issues; Providence favors a three-year deal, while workers are seeking two-year agreements.
"This strike could have been avoided," ONA executive director Anne Tan Piazza
said at a Thursday press conference. "We need Providence to stop refusing to negotiate and come back to the table."
In a recent statement explaining the strike, ONA said: "Providence is a $30 billion corporation whose top executives make million-dollar salaries and are too focused on profits and not enough on high-quality patient care. Providence's outgoing CEO made more than $12 million in 2024."
"The corporatization of healthcare has left many Providence employees frustrated and burnt out as they are being told to spend less and less time with patients and more time trying to drive up profits," the union added. "Providence offers their employees healthcare plans that are far worse than other healthcare systems, with some Providence employees having to pay $5,000 out of pocket to receive services at the place they work."
“The corporatization of health care has left many Providence employees frustrated and burnt out as they are being told to spend less ..time with patients and more time trying to drive up profits."5,000 Oregon doctors, RNS & caregivers will be on strike starting Jan 10 www.wweek.com/news/2024/12...
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— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten.bsky.social) January 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Providence officials say the company has made "competitive offers" to hospital bargaining units, "including double-digit pay increases for hospital nurses representing more than $12,000 a year for a typical nurse."
In a Friday statement referencing Oregon's mandatory 10-day strike notice period, Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said that "Providence wasted 10 days when they could have been at the table making progress towards a comprehensive resolution of their labor dispute."
"We must take care of the people who take care of Oregonians—all hospital staff deserve a fair contract," she added. "Oregonians are already experiencing disruptions to care. All parties must return to the table immediately to resolve their disagreements so normal operations and care can resume."
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For-Profit US Health System Continues to Leave Many Millions Uninsured Each Year
"With so many unsettling questions about the future of key social safety net programs, policymakers must focus on solutions for delivering consistent insurance coverage to everyone," said one researcher behind a new study.
Jan 10, 2025
More than 10 million workers in the United States who held full-time jobs in 2023 still lacked health insurance for the entire year.
That's just one of the troubling findings from a report released Friday which fleshes out how America's "patchwork" system of employer-provided plans, individually purchased coverage through state-level exchanges, and Medicaid, are leaving many millions of Americans without care year after year.
The new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) looked at the demographic characteristics of the uninsured population from 2018 through 2023 using Census Bureau data and found lack of healthcare coverage along class, racial, and ethnic lines, as well as disparities when it comes to levels of educational attainment.
"The Affordable Care Act has delivered insurance coverage for millions of Americans, but there are still considerable gaps in coverage—particularly for workers who find themselves too young for Medicare and who earn wages above thresholds for Medicaid coverage," said Emma Curchin, one of the authors of the paper and a research assistant at CEPR.
"These gaps leave millions of people—many of them working full time all year—unable to secure insurance coverage. With so many unsettling questions about the future of key social safety net programs, policymakers must focus on solutions for delivering consistent insurance coverage to everyone," she added.
After it passed in 2010, the Affordable Care Act—which sought to expand health insurance coverage, including by creating nex exchanges in the for-profit market—was able to reduce the share of the U.S. population that was without health insurance by roughly half between 2009 and 2023. While 16.7% of the population lacked insurance in 2009, the latest available data shows 8% of the population is without insurance. But even with the ACA, the study found that more than 27 million U.S. residents are without insurance, and almost 16 million workers have full-time jobs, part-time jobs, or are unemployed but actively seeking work.
The report, which focused on workers between the ages of 18 and 64 found that among full-time, year-round workers, Hispanic workers were most likely to be uninsured (21%). The rate of being uninsured among that group was about four times higher than the corresponding rate for Asian or white workers, which stood at 5.1% and 5.5%, respectively.
Unmarried people are more likely to be uninsured than married people, and full-time workers who live in a household with a child or children are less likely to be uninsured—which "may reflect the greater likelihood that households with children are eligible for Medicaid, because Medicaid eligibility is determined in part by income relative to household size," according to the authors of the study.
For all worker types, higher educational attainment means lower rates of being uninsured, the researchers found. Someone who works full-time and full-year but has less than a high school degree has an uninsured rate 15 higher than a worker with an advanced degree. Workers who complete some of college but do not hold a degree are almost twice as likely to uninsured compared to those who do finish with a degree.
Across racial and ethic groups and levels of educational attainment men consistently have higher uninsured rates than women.
Other findings include that uninsured rates declined as wages increased. 21.4% of full-time, full-year workers in the bottom of the wage distribution lack health insurance, compared with only 1.7% for workers who are in the top wage quintile. Whether you were born inside the U.S. and citizenship status also play a large role in uninsured rates. 28.9% of full-time, full-year workers who were born in a different country and are not citizens are uninsured, but only 6.7% of full-time, full year workers born in the U.S. are uninsured, and 8.6% of these types of workers who were born abroad but who hold U.S. citizenship are uninsured.
What's more, "lack of coverage is particularly acute for part-time or part-year and unemployed non-citizen workers: 36% of part-time workers and 39% percent of unemployed workers are uninsured," the researchers note.
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