What Project 2025 Says is Next for Children’s Healthcare
Last summer I wrote an article outlining how bad Project 2025 would be for American children, and right now I have NEVER been more upset to be right.
In case you missed it, House Republicans voted to gut Medicaid last night, the #1 insurer of children’s healthcare in America (and Annie Andrews already covered how this will impact South Carolina earlier today).
This was a promise that came directly from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for the Trump presidency that Donald Trump and all his allies promised (lied) was not associated with their campaign whatsoever. And yet… here we are watching the Trump administration follow the totalitarian manifesto down to individual bullet points. The Heritage Foundation owns the Republican Party.
I already read Project 2025 so you don’t have to – though I recommend everyone reads it – and I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But defunding Medicaid is just the beginning of their plan to dismantle federal healthcare programs for young, poor, disabled, and sick Americans.
Let’s break it down:
-
Change the Narrative Around Medicaid and Medicare. These are beloved American programs. They aren’t perfect, but they save lives every single day. (Trust me, I saw it happen every single day of my 3 year pediatrics residency.) Project 2025 seeks to change public perception of these programs, and not in a good way. They say both programs “operate as runaway entitlements that stifle medical innovation, encourage fraud, and impede cost containment, in addition to which their fiscal future is in peril.” It’s very much a tell those sick children to pull themselves up by their size 2 bootstraps kind of moment.
-
Defund Medicare and Medicaid and Make it Look Fiscally Responsible. Done! Well, almost done. This is essentially what is happening right NOW here in D.C.. You see Project 2025 states “our deficit problem is a Medicare and Medicaid problem”… a gross oversimplification for anyone with critical thinking skills, but alas this is exactly what House Republicans are saying to justify what they voted for last night. The problem? The budget they passed last night actually grows the deficit. The basis for their heinous actions are about as strong as a warm slice of Swiss cheese.
-
Redirect Funds to Promote Subsidies for Private Health Insurance. Sounds fine? It’s not. People currently don’t pay for healthcare, because they can’t. That’s the entire point. This passes costs onto poor Americans by giving them tiny subsidies that then result in them paying premiums and co-pays they didn’t have to worry about before. And where do they plan to get the funds for these subsidies? By defunding the current programs that help low-to-middle class families afford non-government healthcare, including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
What does that look like once the plan is completed? Well, it looks like poor and middle class American families pay a HELL of a lot more for healthcare. It also means more children get denied healthcare coverage or are charged higher premiums if they have chronic health conditions (the gut punch here for myself as a pediatrician is the impact on families whose premature infants have been in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
Looking even further down the road, this allows them to force decreased Medicaid enrollment and eventually say hey look how many fewer people are using this program… let’s get rid of it.
Sorry I may have buried the lead a bit, but yes, the ultimate point of defunding Medicaid is to abolish Medicaid. This results in a poorer, sicker America, with fewer hospitals and fewer community health centers of all kinds… so we can give tax cuts to billionaires.
It’s diabolical and it is happening right in front of our eyes with a literal written blueprint to prove it.
Call the capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) to contact your Representative and Senators and tell them NOT to gut Medicaid.
link
