Donald Trump came into office with the best economy in the world. Unemployment was at historic lows, inflation was in retreat, and more Latinos had health care than ever.
In a little under two months, Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress have overseen an increase in unemployment and a rise in inflation. Despite massive public support for Medicaid across political parties and demographics, Republicans are on the precipice of taking health care away from millions.
All of this would be a disaster for our country but would be especially bad for Latinos, who tend to work in low-wage jobs that don't offer affordable healthcare coverage or high enough salaries to afford out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Although the GOP insists that these cuts are part of their strategy for government efficiency, the truth is that they are cutting healthcare to finance massive new tax breaks for the wealthiest households and corporations.
Donald Trump's one bill before Congress includes a 4.5 trillion dollar tax break for the mega-rich, with roughly 2 trillion dollars in cuts to pay for the tax giveaway. Conservatives can make those cuts to any programs they want, but they have indicated publicly that Medicaid is among the places they want to cut. Cutting this critical program would be a disaster for millions of Americans.
According to KFF: "Medicaid is the primary program providing comprehensive health and long-term care to one in five people living in the U.S and accounts for nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on health care." A report from UnidosUS clearly lays out the stakes for Latinos: Medicaid cuts would cause the most pain to elderly and young Latinos. The program provides health insurance to 20.3 million Latino Americans—nearly a third of the Latino community. More than half of all Latino children rely on Medicaid for their health care. Medicaid covers almost 3 in 10 Latino elders, age 65 and older, many of whom need Medicaid for critical long-term services and support.
There would also be considerable political pain points for Republicans with Latino voters if they go through with these cuts. In polling from Protect Our Care and Hart Research last month, Latino voters surveyed are overwhelmingly favorable towards Medicaid and would disapprove of Republicans' plans to slash Medicaid funding.
The Latino voters surveyed in the poll are overwhelmingly favorable towards Medicaid by 68 points, with 80% favorable and 12% unfavorable. Only a miniscule 10% support cutting the federal government funding for health care, with 62% wanting an increase and 20% wanting it to stay the same. 72% would disapprove, with 46% strongly disapproving of Republicans in Congress making significant cuts to Medicaid. 73% of Latino voters either depend on Medicaid themselves, have a family member or relative who does, or know someone close to them who does.
The prospect of losing health care benefits should raise some enormous alarms for Latinos.
While Medicaid is a publicly funded healthcare program, Latinos, like all US residents, contribute to it through taxes, and many Latinos also directly benefit from Medicaid coverage. Why should they lose their benefits to pay for tax cuts for people who do not need them? A bigger question that Latinos should ask themselves is what they are getting in return. If Republicans succeed in cutting Medicaid, they have proposed no new programs to help augment the loss of services.
