skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump tells Justice Dept. to seek release of Epstein grand jury testimony; NV education advocates blast freeze on federal funds; and VA leaders push EV adoption as economic, national security imperative.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

An asylum case sparks alarm, protests invoke the late John Lewis, Trump continues to face backlash over the Epstein files and the Senate moves forward with cuts to foreign aid.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Trump administration's axe to clean energy funding could hit rural mom-and-pop businesses hard, cuts also jeopardize Alaska's efforts to boost its power grid using wind and solar, and a small Kansas school district engages new students with a focus on ag.

KY Group: GOP Medicare, Medicaid Plans Sever Societal Covenant

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 26, 2011   

BEREA, Ky. - An economic policy think tank in Kentucky finds that a plan by Congressional Republicans to reduce federal Medicaid and Medicare spending would break a long-standing American promise of basic health security for society's most vulnerable.

Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy in Berea, says House Republicans' plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program and give states a set amount to run Medicaid would shift more of the cost to beneficiaries or cause them to lose health benefits.

"What it would do is really change the federal role in supporting health care for seniors, for people with disabilities, for children living in poverty, in a way that would harm many Kentuckians. "

Bailey says analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows that in 10 years, a typical 65-year-old would be paying twice as much out-of-pocket for Medicare under the GOP plan as under the traditional system. Moreover, Bailey says, shifting Medicare to the private sector would spike costs because private insurance has higher administrative costs and provider payments.

When it comes to Medicaid, Bailey underscores Kentucky's dependence on the federal-state program that serves those in poverty and with disabilities. More than 800,000 Kentuckians rely on Medicaid. Bailey believes the Republican plan to break from funding a portion of the costs and turning it into a block grant program would allow states to alter benefits and who receives them.

"Kentuckians would lose eligibility. We would throw people off the Medicaid rolls. We would cut benefits. We would cut payments to providers, which are already very low in the Medicaid program. And so fewer doctors, fewer health care providers, would accept Medicaid."

Bailey says ideas to undo Medicare and Medicaid as we know it break the country's decades-old compact to ensure basic health security for the sick, aging and impoverished.

"It would say to people, 'You're on your own.' That's a real strike against a core value we've held in this country over the last 45 years since these programs were created."

Bailey adds that the U.S. House Republicans' budget plan to eliminate the Medicaid expansion scheduled for 2014 under health care reform would deny coverage to an estimated 261,000 Kentuckians.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Department of Education has frozen grants that support summer learning, teacher professional development, after-school programs, English-language classes, support for children of migrants, school-based mental health and adult education. (Syda Productions/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Public education advocates are sounding alarms about the upcoming school year because the federal government is holding up about $60 million in funds …


Environment

play sound

A cleaner environment through less waste is the goal of a new state organization, the Indiana Composting Council. The council will enlist …

Environment

play sound

More than $7 billion in Colorado's GDP and 9,600 jobs are projected to be lost under President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending bill which cu…


According to CalRecycle, 2.6 million tons of plastic packaging and foodware end up in California landfills every year. (Erik/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

California receives high marks in a report on the fight against plastic pollution. This is Plastic-free July and the United States of Plastics report…

play sound

Environmental groups say Oregon's new groundwater law, meant to curb pollution, has been diluted to the point they can no longer support it. …

At least one in seven Nebraskans, or 287,240 people, are facing hunger, with one in five children considered food insecure. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Groups working to end hunger in Nebraska are reaching out to all parts of the state to train food insecure people to advocate for others facing simila…

Social Issues

play sound

New Mexico demonstrators will join nationwide protests today to oppose policies of the Trump administration. The "Good Trouble Lives On" nonviolent …

Social Issues

play sound

More seniors in Washington state are facing financial strain or even losing their homes and seven local organizations will expand support for them wit…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021