WHEREAS:
Medicaid provides access to health care services for 74 million individuals in the United States, including families, children, the elderly and the disabled, and is the number one payer of long-term care services in the nation; and
WHEREAS:
Medicaid is a key tool in the fight against the opioid epidemic, covering individuals who are struggling with addiction, enhancing state capacity to provide early intervention and treatment, and implementing measures to curb over-prescribing of opioids; and
WHEREAS:
Because of its status as a shared entitlement program combining funding streams from both the federal and state governments, Medicaid is integral to the fiscal health of state economies, providing more federal funding to states than all other federal grant programs combined, allowing for a stimulus effect which creates thousands of jobs at the state and local levels; and
WHEREAS:
Medicaid provides a life line to safety net hospitals by offsetting uncompensated care costs and bad debt, which might otherwise force facilities to shutter, leaving high-need communities without access to full-service health care facilities; and
WHEREAS:
Medicaid is an important vehicle for reducing health disparities, primarily affecting racial and ethnic minorities, and provides low-income children with a better chance to succeed in school, leading to a longer, healthier life; and
WHEREAS:
Millions of Americans have become eligible for Medicaid through expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act, and the expansion option is a tremendous fiscal deal for states, with the federal government covering at least 90 percent of the cost of the new population; and
WHEREAS:
Medicaid has become a target of President Trump and Republican Congressional leaders, following passage of an irresponsible tax cut bill that is adding over $1 trillion to the federal deficit.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
AFSCME will oppose reckless cuts to Medicaid at the federal and state levels including efforts to cap Medicaid spending or establish block-grant funding; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
AFSCME will work to preserve the Medicaid expansion option under the Affordable Care Act, and its enhanced federal financial participation.
SUBMITTED BY:
Lawrence A. Roehrig, President and Delegate
Robyn C. Price, Secretary-Treasurer
AFSCME Council 25 Michigan