As the largest public health insurance program in the United States, Medicaid provides coverage for over 70 million low-income individuals. However, with President Trump’s administration looking to cut funding for the program, many are left wondering how these potential changes could impact those who rely on Medicaid for essential healthcare services.
The Republican House budget plan is aiming to make significant cuts to Medicaid in order to align with President Trump’s priorities. One option being considered is reducing waste and fraud within the program, which could potentially free up funds for other areas of need. Additionally, the idea of reducing federal matching dollars and implementing work requirements at the state level, similar to what Arkansas is proposing, are also on the table as potential methods to cut spending on Medicaid.
In a video by the Wall Street Journal, the intricacies of Medicaid and how the GOP could reduce its funding are explored. The program is broken down into different chapters, including an explanation of how Medicaid works, the prevalence of waste and fraud, the role of federal funding match, and the potential implementation of work requirements.
With Medicaid being a target for spending cuts, it is crucial for individuals to understand the potential implications of these changes on the healthcare coverage of millions of Americans. As the debate over Medicaid funding continues, it is important for policymakers and the public alike to consider the impact these decisions will have on the most vulnerable members of society.
Watch the video by The Wall Street Journal
Video “How Medicaid Actually Works—And How Trump Can Cut Funding | WSJ” was uploaded on 04/15/2025 to Youtube Channel The Wall Street Journal
Its called jealousy-down. Them poor they got sum, seems wrong, we wants it.
This is dumb Like as some one with several disabiltys ( i do work but its a struggle and im lucky my work place is crazy flexible and nice and work from home and also im mostly in remission atm when im not i couldnt maintain this ) the people who need the insurance the most are to sick to be able to work and adding more stress or blocking the abilty to get the needed health care will just be a death sentence
Saved my live 2x. My kids like that, and i still pay taxes, so my being alive is probably good for the country.
Medicaid is communism freeloading,
We could eliminate medicaid by just letting everyone access medicare
The U.S. deserves a leader who is focused on progress, not Trump's constant chaos.
Like many welfare programs, what is suppose to be a helping hand, becomes a lifetime of handouts that never stops. Especially those that keep having babies when they cannot financially support the ones they already have, its like they are OWED a certain lifestyle even if others must pay for it.
Every American doesn't deserve health insurance. Every American deserves HEALTHCARE. In other words, every American has the right to live
One way to reduce cost in healthcare (for Medicaid and Medicare) is to do what other countries are doing to some degree: regulate prices on prescriptions and medical care.
For prescription, it's typically factored in for various things so pharmaceutical companies can earn a certain amount of profit on a drug.
Take one example: my mom takes 20mg tadalafil 2x/day for her pulmonary hypertension. The cost without insurance?: $52,000 a year
Or an insulin pen is around $500. There are cheaper options but not by much
Ugh that Arkansas woman is insufferable
Take percentage of people taxes yearly and that should cover the universal health care 🤦🏽♂️
5:10 This chart seems to indicate that at most 10% of unemployed Medicaid recipients are employable at all, and it's likely they'd still be on Medicaid anyway even if they had a job. This is "waste, fraud, and abuse"?
Half the people here don't even know the difference between Medicaid and medicare!
This is more hate-filled fearmongering from the left. If you're not an illegal alien or fraudster receiving benefits illegally, you won't lose benefits.
It's interesting that your discussion does not include Medicaid Estate Recovery, which claws back federal, and in some cases state, Medicaid expenditures on clients. In Oregon the Department of Human Services does not track how much a client owes. If a client requests a current statement, the client is told it simply does not exist. When the client dies, DHS on behalf of Medicaid swoops in with a demand for $x with no verifiable documentation. If the deceased client's estate is not worth $x, everything can be taken. Generally the family photos are not wanted, as they are not considered valuable. Everything else is fair game to be seized and sold. So grandma's little old house goes not to the family to help build a bit of generational wealth, but to an out-of-state hedge fund to be rented to some other low income family. Medicaid recipients are not counseled about this before they accept.
Dear WSJ, Thank you for this informative piece. What has always been interesting about Conservative Republicans seeking means to reduce funding for SSI, Medicare or Medicaid has been the problem that it will be Conservative Republican and MAGA Trump supporting counties that will feel the effects of this the most.
While those who promote this ideology create logic-pretzels about how they have a plan to make sure those Americans who "deserve" coverage will retain it, each time the rubber meets the road the shock and howl from their own constituents tends to circumvent their designs, without demanding that corporate profits from the Healthcare System be removed completely( or taxed heavily as well ).
The Healthcare and Pharmaceutical companies are not pure villains but they do have an extremely powerful lobby group, and they employ a very significant number of Americans, as a result they have a stake in maintain their private and shareholder profits, regardless of the effect upon the larger society.
Plan such as Arkansas work based program is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The more disturbing aspect is that information that Middle and Lower Middle Class American Republican counties have consumed for years has told them how International Free Trade, Democrats, Obama, Hillary, Big Government, Big Taxes, NASA, PBS and ( and God knows whatever Tucker Carlson is on about from one week to the next ) plus sundry other evils, are what was preventing them from having Health Care, or Increasing their incomes or Keeping their jobs and they have accepted this at face value.
Perhaps it will be necessary for the current House, Senate and Administration to implement their entire socioeconomic belief methodology for those who have supported it, come to understand the misinformation they have been fed. This will be painful for everyone, and when done it will take years ( and tax dollars ) to attempt to repair the damage.
Well…
After dealing with Mediscare and Mediscam during my father's last days, These two insurances need to be examined, corrected and revamped!
First, Mediscare denies you for anything they refuse to cover. Then they require you to have examinations and tests under the guise of a requirement for the policy.
Then after you have exhausted all of your personal assets trying to pay for what Mediscare refuses, they slam you onto Mediscam. Homeless and illegal immigrants receive better coverage than someone who paid into the system their entire working life.
WSJ, quit touting the globalist view of insurance policies.
Go back to what you used to do best, report the news in an unbiased manner!
Let the billionaire tax cuts expire and we can then talk about rationalizing the budget. Until then we’re just letting the oligarchs get even richer. There’s little fraud, except by Republicans like Florida Senator Rick Scott.
The only fraud in Medicaid/Medicare is providers overcharging for services and goods.
Considering the 1:5 resourcing of the program, I'd think that more than proves it as an essential service to our citizens and deserving of better treatment than this blatantly aggressive budget target.
Maybe I'm crazy? Couldn't tell you. Psychiatric services are a luxury service in America.
I wouldn't listen to or take seriously anything the state of Arkansas says on governance and tax payer dollars.
I think the biggest problem is not who or how we pay for medical in the US but how much we pay for medical care. In 1970 6.9% of all money made (GDP) in the US was spent for medical, In 2024 it was 19.5%. The largest part of the change was the amount spent on pharmaceuticals. There is not a market based price structure for medical care we have no comparison shopping for Doctors, Hospitals, catscans, etc there is very little incentive to keep prices at bay like most any other service that is provided. All that extra money spent and emergency room and scheduled visit wait times grow at an exponential rate.
Cut, Cut, Cut!
The $600 billion Medicaid maneuver on the chopping block: https://on.wsj.com/3EnfP16