Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
EMS Speakers at the Dec 6 briefing discussed the impact of budget cuts to these critical health safety nets. They will also discuss the consequential impoundment process, which allows the President to simply stop the flow of funds to programs authorized by Congress. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, several federal health programs may face budget shortages as the new administration aims to reduce inflation and debt. The cuts are likely to take aim at Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program — CHIPS — and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. These programs collectively serve over 85 million people in the US.
Joan Alker, Executive Director of the Center for Children and Families and Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy Foundation said that Trump has promised to reduce state Medicaid and Social Security subsidy programs and defense funding. Alker noted that Medicaid is largely federally funded and run by states, and has different names, including Medi-Cal in California.
She said those cuts would come “very quickly” and “bigly”. “We must always pay attention to the budget bill of Congress in January next year. Half of the children in the United States use this medical treatment, and 40% to 50% of the cost of delivery is also reimbursed by the medical system. In addition, federal Medicaid accounts for the largest share of state funding, about 56%. Therefore, if the Medicaid budget is reduced, it will affect various aspects of state economic budgets.
Mayra Alvarez, President of the Children’s Partnership said that in addition to Medicaid, funding for Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) may also be reduced. In the United States, at least 5 million children have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant; in California, three-quarters of the 9 million children are minorities, and at least half of the children have an immigrant mother or father. These changes will hurt the most vulnerable and make it harder for people to buy food, while grocery prices increased by 24% between 2020 and 2023, and we know wages have not increased accordingly.
Richard Kogan, a Senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, pointed out that the purpose and amount of the budget are determined by Congress and, the President’s job is to ensure that the law is faithfully implemented. He emphasized that the President has never had the power to withhold congressional appropriations, but he can use a feasible process to ask Congress to change its mind about previous appropriations and reduce or eliminate some of them.
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