When I heard the news that President Donald Trump had signed several executive orders “freezing” federal funding for numerous government agencies, I immediately grew anxious regarding how such an outcome could possibly affect Americans like me who rely on services like Medicaid to pay for the substantially-higher medical costs that come with having a physical disability.
While my parents’ private insurance is listed as the primary provider, as doing otherwise is not possible, often Medicaid, as the secondary care provider, will pick up the lion’s share of the tab once the primary care provider has paid their pittance. For major, condition-specific surgeries or buying new wheelchairs, costs non-disabled individuals will, by comparison, seldom run into, this is a monumental boon. A boon which allows people with disabilities to comfortably stomach their obligatory healthcare needs, which are nearly quadruple the cost of their non-disabled counterparts’.
Initially, due to the sheer speed of the executive order within the traditionally-congressional system of our government, the exact programs getting cut and frozen remained unclear for several days immediately following its signing. It was not until a week later that the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement clarifying that “mandatory programs, such as Medicaid or SNAP will continue without pause.”
To have the state of such essential institutions like Medicaid essentially shrouded in secrecy for the opening days of a new presidency in which the leader of the free world passionately orated to a crowd of thousands just months before entering office that he would “only act like a dictator on day one” is a worrying notion, not just for me, but for the numerous individuals within his electorate with similar stories to my own who voted the man into power. This is especially true considering the fact that his campaign first began to gather steam once he capitalized on Democrat president and at-time presidential candidate, Joe Biden’s, floundered attempts to address the systemic issues with the country’s welfare system within his previous term, such as the imminent depletion of Social Security reserves. Sure, the benefits for spouses and those on government pensions not covered by the program were increased through the passing of the Social Security Fairness Act, which would typically be a win for those on Social Security, but without any increase in revenue to compensate the enlargement, it only serves to exacerbate the welfare program’s deficit, which now sits at an estimated $4.1 trillion.
During his campaign trail, Trump confidently stated in an interview with NBC that he “wouldn’t touch Social Security” as well as “raise ages or any of that other stuff.” Ironically, though, in the midst of all Trump’s executive orders and policies regarding government efficiency, he has effectively back-tracked out of both of these promises almost immediately. Republican lawmakers, who now have a majority and slim majority in the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, have begun floating around proposals of raising the retirement age to 69. Able-bodied U.S citizens can only receive full benefits from the program once they have reached the age of retirement, effectively meaning millions of Americans would not be eligible for benefits they would have received otherwise at age 67.
Republicans have also proposed cutting significant amounts of funding from Medicaid, with one plan even being suggested to potentially save the government an estimated $2.3 trillion. An eye-popping figure, no doubt, but that $2.3 trillion which would potentially be cut serves an even greater purpose than it would anywhere else. Allocating that money to another place would severely destabilize Medicaid, financially crippling an already underfunded and overstretched system that serves over 70 million Americans.
