Dismantling Medicaid is at the heart of President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress’ agenda. President Trump proposed cutting Medicaid by half in his budget, and Congress has proposed taking an ax to the program both through their repeal of the Affordable Care Act as well as through their budget blueprints. In all cases, these cuts to health coverage and services for children, people with disabilities, seniors, and low-income adults whom Medicaid serves would be used to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and corporations.
These cuts would have devastating consequences for the individuals, families, and communities that Medicaid serves. Nearly 4 in 10 of the nation’s children receive Medicaid, and the program delivers essential supports to 15 million Americans with disabilities. Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in the United States, 64 percent of people in nursing homes, and 1.8 million veterans.
New analysis from the Center for American Progress shows that the more than 1 in 5 Americans who rely on Medicaid hail from all states, age groups, genders, races, and ethnicities. The tables below break down the number of Americans in each state who received Medicaid in 2015.
The draconian Medicaid cuts proposed in legislation and budgets would result in millions of families being unable to afford lifesaving medical care, access basic preventative services for their children, and prevent disastrous medical debts.
The tables below, which are based on American Community Survey (ACS) 2015 one-year estimates, represent lower-bound estimates of Medicaid enrollees, since surveys such as the ACS tend to undercount program participants. Due to the way the ACS reports enrollment, these estimates also include a small share of individuals who receive health coverage through a different income-based public medical assistance program, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which are also at risk under President Trump and congressional Republicans’ health care plan. The ACS counted about 66.4 million participants nationally in 2015, about 91.7 percent of the 72.4 million participants reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in mid-2015. The authors use the ACS because the data produce a conservative estimate of enrollment—and because, unlike administrative data, these data also contain demographic information on enrollees.
Slashing Medicaid is the cornerstone of President Trump and congressional Republicans’ agenda. These cuts to critical health care services would be used to help pay for tax cuts for the richest Americans—and would be devastating for people with disabilities, children, seniors, and veterans in every state in the country.
Rachel West is an associate director for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Katherine Gallagher Robbins is the director of family policy for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center.