Connecticut officials are warning about cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and heating assistance in Congressional Republican’s budget proposal.
Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said the cuts will be devastating for the state’s lowest income residents, some of whom rely on several programs.
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WATCH HERE“This is a full-on assault against middle class, low income and poor people and it has to stop now,” Barton Reeves said.
The federal budget is still very much in flux as Congressional Republicans struggle to reach a budget deal.
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SIGN UP Rep. Mike Johnson (R-House Speaker) defended the cuts as Republicans look to reign in federal spending and extend tax cuts.
“Let me say – we cut $1.5 trillion in spending; it will be the largest spending cuts by any government in the history of planet earth. Okay?” he told reporters Thursday. “This is a serious, serious move towards fiscal responsibility.”
Johnson has said he wants a vote by Memorial Day, but Friday the House Budget Committee threw up a roadblock by rejecting the proposal with a 21-16 vote.
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A block of conservative Republicans said they wanted even more cuts.
While the budget remains in flux, various service providers and recipients in Connecticut warned about the impact of cuts detailed in the proposal.
“Imagine your teenage children not being able to get food, shelter, heat and then to go to school and succeed in school, their minds aren’t there,” said Marcia Smith, who receives heating aid.
The proposal includes cutting the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program, which helps roughly 100,000 households afford heat in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer.
The proposal also includes stricter work requirements and forcing recipients to reapply twice a year.
Barton Reeves said those two things alone can create admirative hurdles that result in people losing their insurance.
She also said the majority of SNAP recipients in Connecticut already work, as do a large number of Medicaid beneficiaries.
The budget also proposes penalizing states that use their own funds to insure undocumented immigrants. Connecticut extends Medicaid to cover undocumented immigrants 15 and under.
Dr. Sabrina Trocchi, president and CEO of Wheeler Clinic, estimates 70% of the 22,000 patients her Federal Qualified Health Centers treat are insured by Medicaid.
“It's really what’s keeping me up at night wanting to understand what are we going to be able to continue to do,” she said.
She also noted her clinics offer chiropractors and other care that Medicaid recipients struggle to access through private practices.
FHQCs are not allowed to deny care to patients, even if they lose their insurance.
Trocchi said her center has limited ability to make up money elsewhere, though, if some people lose Medicaid.
Most of the remaining patients also have limited income and rely on either Medicare or high-deductible plans, and thus can’t afford higher rates.
Wheeler Clinic also gets a small amount of federal funding to supplement but the budget, but Trocchi said she’d likely need the state to cover any lost Medicaid revenue.
She also noted Wheeler Clinic used to focus solely on behavioral health but expanded to included primary care medical services after hearing from Medicaid recipients who struggled to find doctors who would take them.
Those who did find primary care doctors complained about the care they received, she said.
“The reason we became a health center is because many of our adults in behavioral health treatment services were reporting to us that they did not have access to primary care,” she said.
