The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the Big Brutal Bill this week and—like its House counterpart—it’s devastating for nutrition and health care programs for vulnerable communities.
The Senate proposal includes the largest cut to SNAP in history, as part of a budget package that guts basic needs programs.
The bill also contains the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, and will result in 16 million people losing their health insurance. A recent analysis of the House-passed bill found that because of the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and reduced staffing requirements at nursing homes, 51,000 people will die each year.
Additionally, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as many as 330 rural hospitals nationwide could close or reduce services as a result of this bill. And, new research shows that cuts to Medicaid along with SNAP will reduce jobs by 1.2 million nationwide, equivalent to about a 0.8% increase in the unemployment rate.
Cutting the heart out of basic needs programs including SNAP and Medicaid doesn’t save states or the federal government money—it denies care and creates bigger problems down the road, shifting the burden to service providers, local governments, and taxpayers. This will lead to higher costs and more strain on budgets—household and state budgets alike. And it will cost lives.
It’s not too late to change course. Now more than ever, it’s critical that the Senate act to protect health care, nutrition, and other essential services that help millions of families meet their basic needs. We should strengthen support for these programs—not take them away
The National Academy of Social Insurance, with support from Caring Across Generations and the Ford Foundation, recently released a groundbreaking report on Designing Universal Family Care: State-Based Social Insurance Programs for Early Child Care and Education, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and Long-Term Services and Supports. The report explores strategies that states could pursue to better support families in meeting evolving care needs over the lifespan. This analysis was developed over a year of deliberations by a Study Panel of 29 experts in care policy from a variety of perspectives.
In this symposium, Alexandra Bradley (Lead Policy Analyst on the Academy Study Panel) and Benjamin Veghte (Study Panel Director and now Research Director at Caring Across Generations) will identify gaps in our care infrastructure and policy options developed by the Study Panel to address them. Elise Gould (Senior Economist at EPI) will discuss her recently co-authored study on value-based budgeting for California’s early care and education system. And Robert Espinoza (Vice President of Policy at PHI) will report on his research on the relation between quality direct care jobs and quality long-term care and propose standards for direct care jobs and workforce policy.
A light lunch will be served. Your RSVP will help us prepare.
What: Symposium on strategies to meet families’ evolving care needs.
Who: Alexandra Bradley, Caregiving Study Panel project
Benjamin Veghte, Caring Across Generations
Elise Gould, Economic Policy Institute
Robert Espinoza, PHI
When: Wednesday, November 6
12 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Eastern
Where: Economic Policy Institute
1225 I St. NW, Suite 600