For Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is “Make America Ryany Again” much more than a nice slogan. He said his cosmic goal in life, is to repair the health problems of the country. “The first thing I have done every morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and to pray to God that he would bring me into a position to end the chronic disease pidemy,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing in January. As a health secretary, he continued to emphasize his dedication to that goal. But yesterday Kennedy welcomed a movement that makes it less healthy but guaranteed America.
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, who hired the Senate yesterday, includes provisions that would dramatically change Medicaid, the government program that health insurance mainly offers people with a low income. The bill requires that a significant part of Medicaid -benefit work to gain access to benefits, and creates other barriers for people who register for the program. All in all, it would kick nearly 12 million people by 2034, according to an estimate of the non -party -bound Congressional Budget Office. If the bill passes the house, it goes to President Donald Trump, who will sign it in the law.
Medicaid is an expensive program, and the White House has said that stricter police who have access to fraud will eradicate and save money for the necessary Americans. (Fraud is indeed A problem with the program.) Kennedy, who supervises Medicaid as head of health and human services, has repeated that message. Yesterday he posted on X that the bill will ‘enable the Trump administration’ to offer better care to the most vulnerable citizens in America ‘. But almost the entire medical establishment warns that reducing medicaid and limiting access to medical care would have serious consequences for the health of Americans. The American Hospital Association has said that the bill “will lead to irreparable damage to our health care system.” The American College of Emergency Physicians has said that it will have “dangerous wrinkle effects that influence anyone who needs life -saving emergency care.”
Kennedy has argued several times that the number of people should shrink on Medicaid. In a recent hearing of the congress, Kennedy argued that Medicaid should only be for ‘poor children’, ‘mothers’ and ‘the disabled’ instead of ‘valid people who are not looking for jobs’. During his hearing of the senate confirmation, Kennedy made it clear that his problem with Medicaid is unsatisfactory results. “We spend $ 900 billion and our people get sicker every year,” he said. (A HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comments.)
But cutting Medicaid would immediately undermine the Maha agenda of Kennedy. Many of the sickest Americans are on Medicaid and may not be able to afford health insurance. The program is able to gain access to the types of diseases that RFK Jr. is set to remedy. Nine out of 10 adults who are on medicaid and have chronic disorders, a doctor report last year, only 63 percent of the uninsured adults, according to KFF, a non -party -related organization.
There is a lot for Kennedy to find in the services that Medicaid offers. The health secretary is perhaps the most pronounced advocate for the concept that food is medicine, but Medicaid has long embraced the idea. Every state runs its own Medicaid program, and Massachusetts, for example, offers healthy meals to people with certain food-related disorders. This pilot program has reduced the hospital admissions by almost a quarter, According to one study. Kennedy has also cited his old advocacy for people with disabilities. Various states, including California, pay for assistants who can help with tasks for personal care. Some will even pay for renovations to make houses more accessible, so that people with disabilities can live more independently.
With its framework on Medicaid, Kennedy has reversed the causes and effects of American health problems. He is right to point out that Medicaid serves an incredibly ill population. Adults below the poverty line have about twice as much chance of reporting only fair or poor health compared to the entire American population, according to the CDC. But Medicaid is part of the solution, not the problem itself.
#RFK #Jr.s #confusing #contempt #medicaid