Last week, the WSJ editorial page published an editorial headlined “The Medicaid Scare Campaign.” The thesis is that the #Medicaid cuts would “improve healthcare by expanding private insurance options, which provide better access & health outcomes than Medicaid.”

This would be, as they say, huge if true: The #GOP has found a way to give #LowIncome Americans better #healthcare while saving hundreds of billions in taxpayer money.

The agency kept #Covid shots o
the schedule for children 6 months to 17 years old with a new condition. #Children & their caregivers will be able to get the #vaccines in consultation with a doctor or provider, which the agency calls “shared decision-making.”

The shots will also continue to be available under those terms to about 38 million #LowIncome children who rely on the #Vaccines for Children program, acc/to an emailed update from the #CDC Friday.

#Republicans on the party's right flank had pushed for deeper #spending #cuts to lessen the #budget impact, but met resistance from centrists who worried that would fall too heavily on the 71 million #LowIncome Americans enrolled in #Medicaid.

#MikeJohnson made changes to address conservatives' concerns, pulling forward new #WorkRequirements for Medicaid recipients to take effect at the end of 2026, 2yrs earlier than before. That would kick SEVERAL MILLION people off the program.

Robert Scott, a NYC-based #immigration lawyer, said he was baffled when one of his clients—a #LowIncome Mexican woman who has lived in the US for 25yrs—also received a $1.8M fine.

“At first you look at something like this & think it’s fake. I’ve never seen a client receive anything like this,”he said.

Scott said the woman received a final #deportation order in 2013 but was not aware of it at the time. The woman filed a motion last year to reopen the removal order, which is still pending.

The suit argues the cutbacks already enacted have jeopardized a range of congressionally mandated programs, including #MentalHealth & #addiction services, #HeadStart — the federal program that funds early childhood #education for #poor students — #Medicaid & assistance for #LowIncome households in paying heating & cooling bills.

#Trump’s #budget eliminates #JobCorps, a Dept of #Labor program since the 1960s that provides #career #training & #education for #LowIncome teens & young adults. The program, which the White House called “a failed experiment,” has long been a target of #Republican administrations.

Since #Congress ultimately decides & approves #spending levels, it is significant that Senator #SusanCollins, #Republican of Maine & the chair of the #Appropriations Cmte says she has “serious objections” to #Trump’s proposed #defense spending levels & cuts to programs like the #LowIncome Home #Energy Assistance Program & those that support #biomedical #research.

“Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the #power of the purse,” Collins said.

#Trump’s budget proposes to eliminate entirely a $4.1 billion program that helps #LowIncome Americans pay their #heating & #cooling #bills. The proposal says that the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program [#LIHEAP] is “unnecessary” because Trump is planning to increase domestic #oil & #gas production & reduce #energy prices. Last month, the admin fired everyone working in the program’s office, which currently helps 6.2 million Americans nationwide offset high #UtilityBills.

Asked to comment on the findings of this story, an #EPA spox directed Reuters to a video stmnt by #Trump's new #EPA administrator, #LeeZeldin, who has outlined a strategy emphasizing #deregulation, saying the US can protect the #environment & promote economic growth at the same time [note the absence of concern for #PublicHealth & populations in #LowIncome communities].

Those #health inequities are the legacy of racial #discrimination that was legal from the country's inception until 1965, the type of historical #injustice #DEI policies were designed to correct.

#Trump also rescinded a 1994 EO by fmr Pres Bill #Clinton that directed every #FederalAgency to develop an agency-wide #EnvironmentalJustice strategy to address adverse health or #environmental effects on *minority* & #LowIncome populations.

In Hobbs, #NewMexico, Sherif says about 85% of his patients are on #Medicaid, the federal & state #HealthInsurance program for #LowIncome Americans. His clinic orders about $50,000 worth of #measles, #chickenpox & other #vaccines per month through the program, he says, an amount of #money impossible for his small clinic to afford if not covered by the federal program.

“If I were to buy them by myself, I would not get enough for my patients,” he said.