Potential reductions in the GOP's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" may pose a threat to healthcare coverage for approximately 277,000 residents of Kentucky.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), currently under consideration in Congress, has sparked a heated debate due to its proposed cuts to safety-net programs, particularly Medicaid. This bill, aiming to fund Trump administration priorities such as immigration raids, border wall construction, and extended tax cuts, faces opposition from six Nobel Prize-winning economists due to its potential impact on these programs and the national debt.
Josh Bivens, chief economist at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, predicts that if the bill passes, it could result in a direct transfer of income from vulnerable families on Medicaid to the richest Americans, with tax cuts for individuals making over $1 million per year estimated at $70 billion. This shift could lead to millions losing their Medicaid health insurance, with up to 17 million people becoming uninsured due to combined Medicaid cuts and ended ACA subsidies.
Researchers project these coverage losses will cause approximately 1,484 excess deaths per year, nearly 95,000 preventable hospitalizations per year, 1.6 million people delaying care annually, and 1.9 million medication nonadherence cases per year. Long-term mortality and morbidity are expected to worsen due to reduced access to primary and preventative care.
The proposed cuts to Medicaid would jeopardize rural hospitals, with projections indicating about 101 rural hospitals could become highly vulnerable to closure annually by 2034. Federally qualified health centers may lose millions of Medicaid patients and gain uninsured patients, reducing revenues by around $3.3 billion yearly, which threatens their financial viability. Providers and clinics serving low-income populations face major revenue losses, which could degrade overall healthcare access.
The bill’s Medicaid spending reduction will decrease federal outlays by hundreds of billions, providing budgetary savings. However, experts highlight that these savings come at great human cost and with possible negative economic consequences from increased poor health, lost productivity, and higher uncompensated care costs. Some argue that reforms beyond spending cuts are also needed to control costs, as private insurers dominate Medicaid managed care contracts, extracting billions.
While the bill claims to strengthen Medicaid by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse—particularly by removing undocumented immigrants' eligibility and enforcing work requirements—many experts view these changes effectively as Medicaid cuts since they remove coverage from millions relying on the program.
In summary, while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act may improve federal budget metrics via Medicaid spending cuts, the associated increase in uninsured individuals, deaths, hospital strain, and economic losses highlights profound negative implications for the healthcare system and vulnerable populations.
- The ongoing debate about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) in Congress includes discussions on its proposed cuts to Medicaid, which is a concern for nonprofit organizations like the Economic Policy Institute.
- The OBBB, intended to fund Trump administration priorities, could lead to a health-and-wellness crisis, as predicted by Josh Bivens, chief economist at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, who warns of millions losing their Medicaid health insurance and potential excess deaths per year.
- United States elections have placed the OBBB under scrutiny due to its policy-and-legislation proposals, with critics arguing that it could have detrimental effects on Kentucky's rural hospitals, Kentuckians on Medicaid, and the nation's health-and-wellness overall.
- Despite claims that the OBBB aims to strengthen Medicaid by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, many argue that its changes effectively act as Medicaid cuts, since they remove coverage from millions relying on the program, much like a proposal to make Medicaid eligibility conditional on work requirements.
- A key issue in the politics surrounding the OBBB is weighing the potential budgetary savings from Medicaid spending reductions against the general-news headlines that will likely feature increased uninsured individuals, preventable hospitalizations, lost productivity, and economic losses for the healthcare system and vulnerable populations.
