Within the “Big Beautiful Bill” are proposed cuts to Medicaid, large ones. UNO Economics Professor Walter “Dub” Lane spoke to WWL’s Tommy Tucker about the impacts that might be felt by people across all political spectrums as President Trump’s cuts actually begin to impact people’s lives and pocketbooks.
Former White House Strategist Steve Bannon recently noted that there are a greater number of MAGA supporters who are on Medicaid in proportion to the total number of recipients.
“The Kaiser Family Foundation noted that a fair number of people on Medicaid are Trump supporters. It will be interesting to see what the response of 45% of Republicans who will lose their insurance will be,” Lane emphasized.
For those who appreciated aspects of the Affordable Care Act, such as being able to keep children on insurance plans until they reach the age of 26, not being denied for pre-existing conditions, and having no upper limits on coverage, Lane says those elements should be safe.
“Republicans have learned a lesson; they’re not touching any of those. Everybody loves those. But what they are touching is who gets insurance and how much they have to pay for it,” explains Professor Lane. “They’re cutting the amount of funding that goes to Medicaid, and the only way you can do that is by slashing the amount of people who get Medicaid,” Lane goes on to say. That will lead to many more people being stuck with potentially large medical bills and having to pay out of pocket.
Lane pointed to his previous tenure working with an area hospital and the impact the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) had on the number of uninsured patients they dealt with.
“I’m affiliated with a local hospital. Before the Medicaid expansion, about 8% of all our customers were uninsured. Because of Obamacare, that number fell below 2%. So, guess what? That number is going to shoot back up again,” Lane tells Tommy Tucker.
The result of the uninsured numbers being driven back up is that many area hospitals will be left footing the bill when the patients they are obligated to treat are unable to pay.
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