In West Virginia, Medicaid is a lifeline. GOP cuts could devastate the state.

[Zorro]

GOP states are particularly reliant on a program that President Donald Trump and other Republicans have targeted for deep spending reductions.

Hampshire Memorial Hospital is nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains, past more than 20 miles of winding mountain roads dotted with lush trees and ridges. It is the only hospital for a county that spans 645 square miles and, for many of its 24,000 residents, is the sole option for health care ranging from routine ailments to life-threatening emergencies.

Like every rural hospital in West Virginia, Hampshire Memorial relies deeply on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor that covers about one-third of residents in this deep-red state. But its ability to continue treating Hampshire County — among the poorer and sicker counties in the country — has been thrown into doubt by President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending package that he has said he wants on his desk by July 4.

The proposal, which passed the House last month, proposes codifying trillions of dollars in tax cuts from Trump’s first term that primarily benefit the wealthy, along with hundreds of billions of dollars of new spending on immigration enforcement and national defense. It proposes paying for those items largely by slashing Medicaid, which, if passed, would mark the biggest cut in the program’s nearly 60-year history.

During negotiations in the House, Trump warned Republicans in a closed-door meeting: “Don’t f--- around with Medicaid.” But Trump and his aides have been uneven and often contradictory in their promises, sometimes arguing that Medicaid benefits are safe while “waste, fraud and abuse” were not. But the House version of the bill does not make such distinctions while calling for nearly $800 billion in cuts to the program.

https://wapo.st/3ZIyewR

Oh well...

[hatrack]

1. OhNoAnyway

.

[Lonestarblue]

2. Sometimes you get what you vote for.

Every West Virginia voter should have known that Trump us a serial liar who makes big promises to improve their lives but never delivers. The same can be said for Republicans.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. West Virginia and other RED states will rue the day they voted REPUBLICAN!!!

All because they have been brainwashed into thinking that what the Democrats propose is BAD and they do not want "SOCIALISM". These people in these states will be poor, they will die from lack of health care services, be unable to afford the basics to live, but at least they will be FREE to do so.

STUPID thinking if I may say so.

[BComplex]

4. Yet West virginians will never hear an echo chamber telling them it was REPUBLICANS that did this to them.

That echo chamber is reserved for telling people how great the republicans are.

[Polybius]

16. Nah

They'll do it again in 2028 and 2032, mark my words.

[Botany]

5. FAFO Trump vote 69.97%. Harris vote 28.10%. For the state of W.V.

Hampshire County Was 80% Trump and 18% Harris

Face eating leopards. Burp!



Potomac River? Lots of leopards along the river.

[Snarkoleptic]

6. 522,000 children and adults are enrolled in West Virginia Medicaid.

Dying to own the libs is very on-brand for magats.

Numbers for other States here-
https://www.kff.org/interactive/medicaid-state-fact-sheets/

[Scrivener7]

7. Welp. That's what 70% of them voted for.

[irisblue]

8. I grieve for the kids, they had no choice.

[atreides1]

9. And?

This what they wanted for others and now they're going to get the same...

[Zambero]

10. How WV went red

A lot of fools resented being called fools for voting for a party whose policies are in direct opposition to their well-being. So they double down by continue their foolishness, recruiting others into a steady march off the economic cliff, all to the tune of the culture wars boogie.

[doc03]

12. Manufacturing jobs and mining jobs went away, and the Unions went with it. It all

goes back to RR making the US into a service economy and of course NAFTA.

[doc03]

11. The WV Governor declared a disaster from the flooding last week, where ten people died

near Wheeling. Maybe I missed it, but I have not heard a peep about it from Trump or anything about FEMA.

[Norrrm]

15. Something about bootstraps.

[Dulcinea]

18. The Fascist Felon wants to kill FEMA.

Too bad, so sad, West Virginia. You get nothing. Billionaires get everything.

[Silent Type]

13. Longer-term, it will definitely take a toll. Shorter term, the cut is roughly 5% and likely won't close hospitals for

several years.

Most provisions wouldn't start until Oct 31, 2026 at earliest and many start later. For example, work requirements might begin as late as Jan 1. 2028, rather than 2027, in certain instances.

GOPers, unfortunately, won't respond negatively until they actually feel it. That will likely be after midterms. A big chunk of GOPers won't care at all.
-----------------------------------

https://www.kff.org/tracking-the-medicaid-provisions-in-the-2025-budget-bill/
https://www.manatt.com/insights/newsletters/health-highlights/how-the-senate-reconciliation-bill-would-impact-health-care

[IbogaProject]

21. Yep lots of these are timebombs

Just like the real tax time bombs that hit this tax year and the big tax cliff on the middle class set to hit for the 2027 tax year to make the rubes angry next election years.

[Aristus]

14. I guess the buckboard-and-horse postal system didn't get the message up to Squalor Holler that Trump

is going to cut Medicaid.

"Rub some dirt on it, and walk off the pain" is a home remedy the Clampetts had better get used to hearing.

Elections have consequences...

[Mysterian]

17. Easy fix!

They will make an exeption for West Virginia and make blue states pay for it. That's the plan moving forward. Make blue states pay for everything.

[bif]

19. We already do

[MineralMan]

20. But, if the goal is population reduction, it should work very well.

Think about that. Add in the withholding of vaccine development and other cut-backs, and you can see how it is designed to work.

And who is most effected? The poor, as always.

We all need to be considering that possibility as an operational motive for the "Righteous Right."

[Jit423]

22. They can thank Manchin for his help in trashing all social aide.

[dsc]

23. I have absolutely zero sympathy for those who voted for him and had this happen

They richly deserve every last bit of it.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. Many states in the same sinking ship boat.

[Crunchy Frog]

25. That's what those people mostly vote for.

I can't really feel too badly for most of them.

[OrlandoDem2]

26. Sucks to be them. Sorry not sorry. (Unless you voted Blue)

[Skittles]

27. you have to wonder what it would take to snap these red state voters out of their delusions

ya know?

[Emile]

28. I live in a rural area in a red state. Cuts to Medicaid

could end up closing the doors of our little hospital.

[Scrivener7]

29. I'm so sorry. That is a frightening prospect.

[Scrivener7]

30. Hillary had hundreds of clean energy companies' pledges to open offices in the coal and rust belt.

WV would have been a mecca.

They preferred the guy who told them their racism and sexism were just peachy.

[fujiyamasan]

31. Oh well

I have about as much sympathy for them as those Arab American in Michigan.