The GOP Attack on Medicaid: More Ammo for Dems?

[n2doc]

— By Suzy Khimm| Fri May. 27, 2011 7:14 AM PDT
Still giddy about their political victory in the special congressional election in upstate New York, Democrats have resolved to put the GOP plan to phase out Medicare at the heart of their 2012 election strategy. But they may have more to thank Rep. Paul Ryan for. Though the Medicare provision in Ryan's budget, which has been embraced by House and Senate Republicans, has dominated headlines, his plan to roll back Medicaid dramatically is another essential element of the GOP budget, and a new poll has found that Americans are loath to support this effort to gut Medicaid. As NPR's Julie Rovner explains:

This month's health tracking poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation finds that only 13 percent of those polled support major reductions in Medicaid spending as part of congressional efforts to reduce the deficit. At the same time, 60 percent want to keep Medicaid as it is…

Perhaps even more striking, although maybe it shouldn't be given how much Medicaid has grown in recent years, is that more than half of respondents said they had a personal connection to the Medicaid program. That was defined as the respondent or a friend or family member having received assistance from the program at some point.

Medicaid has often been characterized as a program for the very poor, yet the economic downturn has put a record number of Americans into the program. What's more, senior citizens also receive a big proportion of Medicaid dollars through nursing homes, as even middle-class Americans have resorted to the program as their savings have run out. Medicaid is serving a larger and more diverse group of Americans than before, making the GOP proposal to eviscerate the program all the more unpopular—and politically dangerous for the Republicans.

more

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/democrats-medicaid-republicans-2012-election

Ryan- the gift that keeps on giving!

[sakabatou]

1. Will the Dems screw it up though?

[Fumesucker]

2. More powder that must be kept so dessicated that it makes the Sahara look like the Everglades..

[jwirr]

3. IF we want to paint this attack on Medicaid in a way that confronts

the GOP then we need to be very careful how we frame this issue. Most people think Medicaid is just for poor welfare people. And yes, it does cover them but most of the people on Medicaid are the disabled and a large number are seniors who have used up all their savings and are in a nursing home. If we frame it as anti elderly then it will become an issue for more than just "welfare" people.