How Trump's planned Medicaid cuts would hurt older women
Since women on average live longer than men, they are more likely to have to stretch their more meager savings and retirement income over more years. There are
More women than men age 65 and older are low-income, meaning their
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Since women live longer than men, they are also more likely to suffer the ailments of age. According to the
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This brings us to Medicaid, the main public program paying for long-term care. According to KFF, Medicaid accounts for
Since many more beneficiaries receiving Medicaid-covered long-term care are women, they would be most affected by cuts to Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the anticipated cuts would result in
Speaking on the PBS 'NewsHour,' Jennifer Tolbert of KFF explained that the bill rescinds a rule 'that made it easier for seniors and people with disabilities who also have Medicare coverage to enroll in Medicaid, which will then pay for their premiums and cost-sharing, as well as provide them access to supplemental benefits that Medicare doesn't provide, including long-term care, dental benefits, as well as vision care.'
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It could also mean many more seniors being forced to move to nursing homes. As Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, explained to me, while Medicaid coverage of nursing home care is mandatory, coverage of home health care is discretionary.
So to save funds, states are likely to cut back on the discretionary services they now cover. Without home health care assistance, many more families would have to make the difficult choice of placing parents and grandparents in nursing homes, where the quality of care would be likely to deteriorate as states reduce what they pay providers.
This would also adversely affect women who are caregivers, both paid and unpaid. While the statistics vary, up to
Further, many family caregivers would be likely to be thrown off Medicaid themselves under the expanded work requirements in the House Republican bill. According to KFF,
All these funding reductions are meant to reduce a federal deficit that is projected to balloon with
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Fortunately, the Republicans may not have the votes to put this devil's bargain through. Even Senator Josh Hawley,
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