Families USA Releases Analysis of “Extreme” Graham-Cassidy Health Care Proposal

Washington, D.C. – A health care plan sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposes a “new block grant that would dramatically cut funding both for Medicaid expansion and for financial assistance that helps low-wage workers and moderate-income families buy private insurance,” according to an analysis released today by Families USA.

The analysis says the plan would slash funding for Medicaid expansion, cut funding for the underlying Medicaid program using approaches already rejected on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, and eliminate key consumer safeguards – an idea also rejected by Senators of both parties.

“Graham-Cassidy has the same radical problems as earlier repeal efforts,” said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA. “Block granting health care funding is just another way to cut funding. And block grants are especially harmful to families and states, particularly during recessions. The cuts in the Graham-Cassidy proposals are just as harsh and extreme as any of the repeal proposals that the Senate rejected over the summer.”

Among the troubling features detailed in the analysis, Graham-Cassidy would:

• Cut more than $400 billion from Medicaid expansion and financial assistance for marketplace health coverage.
• End funding after 2026, leaving 29 million Americans stranded, without any known source of health insurance.
• Arbitrarily redistribute a shrinking pool of federal money from some states to others. All states would see lower funding, but California, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia would experience particularly immediate and severe cuts.

The report concludes saying: “The Graham-Cassidy proposal represents another extreme attempt to take health insurance away from tens of millions of Americans in working families. Rather than continue down a road that the American people and senators in both parties have already rejected, Congress should focus its attention on bipartisan strategies to stabilize and strengthen the individual health insurance market.”