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Talking Points on Medicaid

The Message

The most important thing health care activists can do now is to communicate the following messages, especially through the media and to policy-makers:

Someone you know will be hurt by Medicaid cuts.
We have a health care problem for everyone, not a Medicaid problem.
Medicaid is the difference between life and death for some people.
Saving people on Medicaid means closing corporate tax loopholes and other tax reforms.

See how the North Carolina Justice Center (PDF) hese talking points to make the issue real for NC residents.

Letters to the Editor

Send a letter to the editor of your local paper through the Medicaid Matters site.

Tell your Medicaid Story

Families USA is collecting first-hand accounts of people who have a compelling story to tell about Medicaid as part of its effort to humanize the debate over funding for legislators and the broader public. To tell your story visit the website or contact Alexandra Zavala, Communications Outreach Coordinator at Families USA, at 1-800-593-5041 ext. 3614 or at azavala@familiesusa.org.

Faith-Based Talking Points

from the Washington Interfaith Staff Community (WISC) Working Group on Health Care

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

The common good of our nation and its health care system relies upon federal programs such as Medicaid. A substantial portion of each state’s health care industry, including hospitals, nursing homes, and community health centers, relies upon Medicaid spending to keep their doors open.
Any cut in Medicaid funds will result in a greater number of uninsured Americans, leading to greater numbers of hospitals and doctors being left uncompensated for health services, more individuals filing for bankruptcy due to unpaid-for medical bills, and higher premiums for those who do have insurance to make up for the uninsured who use health services.
In the most recent recession, millions of Americans who otherwise would have been without health insurance had coverage thanks to Medicaid. In times of need, Medicaid’s guarantee of coverage to people who are eligible as well as its open-ended financing structure provide a cushion to protect both citizens and the economy.

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Champion the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs, 31: 8-9)

Medicaid provides access to health care for the most vulnerable in our society: the impoverished, the disabled, and the elderly. Nationally, Medicaid provides essential health services to 51 million people, about half of which are children.
Medicaid gives millions of elderly Americans access to long term and nursing care facilities they, and their families, otherwise could not afford. A block grant would increasingly burden America’s families who struggle to provide for an ailing parent or loved one.
Medicaid plays a crucial role in providing health services and care for adults and children with disabilities including physical impairments, mental disabilities and illness, HIV/AIDS, etc. Individuals with chronic disabilities often lack access to private health insurance and cannot afford to purchase commercial health care do their chronic needs

There will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land. (Deuteronomy, 15:11)

The health care needs of the neediest Americans do not magically disappear when there are fewer federal funds available. Cutting Medicaid would force society to turn a blind-eye to the health care needs of millions of people still in need after the capped amount is reached.
Proposed cuts to Medicaid funding would mean that when federal funds run dry, the states would be forced to pick up the bill, which could plunge states budgets into even further fiscal crises threatening the viability of an untold number of essential state public investments, programs, services.
Health care costs generally have risen dramatically over recent years. However, it is not the Medicaid program that is driving those increases. Cutting Medicaid, without real reform of the entire health care system, does not deal with the health care crisis our country faces. Rather, less funding for an important health program makes the crisis more acute.

You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor. (Leviticus, 19:16)

If our fellow citizens are denied access to health services, their illnesses will not go away, they will worsen. Medicaid provides coverage so that many Americans will have access to treatment that will maintain health and prevent more serious, and thus more expensive to treat, illness and disease.
Low-income Americans, the elderly, and the disabled experience, on average, poorer health than the rest of the population. We cannot cut and limit vital funds that provide treatment to those who are often the sickest among us.
For those in rural areas, particularly the elderly, Medicaid provides access to health care they would likely otherwise go without, leaving the patients sicker and their families more burdened.

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice…For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots inequity…to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink…to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands. (Isaiah 32: 1-8)

At a time when our federal government has chosen to spend billions on a war in Iraq while at the same time reducing the tax responsibility on our most affluent citizens and corporations, those who have the means to take care of themselves, to cut health care services for poor children, elderly sick people, and the disabled in order to reduce the deficit is a moral issue and violates core Biblical and religious principles.
The federal budget is the great moral document of our nation, defining our nation’s priorities and reflecting the values we uphold as a country. With regard to Medicaid, this year’s budget will determine whether or not the health and well-being of all Americans is a priority.

National Health and Medicaid Statistics

The number of employees recieving private health insurance from their employers dropped by 1.3 million in 2003 causing an increase in the number of working uninsured to 20.2 precent from 19.5 percent. While many Americans were losing their employee health care policies the cost of a private health care coverage is rising. The safety net Medicaid provides is needed now more than ever for millions of people who are one paycheck away from poverty and uninsurance. See the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report
Enrollment in Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) increased to cover 2.4 million more low income children and adults in 2003. For children, the growth in Medicaid and SCHIP coverage was sufficient to offset the loss of private coverage--meaning the percentage of uninsured children remained almost constant between 2002 and 2003, while the overall number of Americans without health insurance rose dramatically. SCHIP and Medicaid are examples of successful government programs that should be fully supported and funded well into the future. See the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report
Nine million U.S. children do not have health insurance. 90 percent of these children have at least one working parent.
Even those children who are insured under government programs are often at risk due to poor quality of care. Cuts or caps to Medicaid funding would cause undue additional harm to millions of children across the country.
Substantial racial/ethnic disparities in health insurance persist in the U.S. According to an analysis of mortality data from 1991-2000, resolving the disparities in death rates between whites and African Americans over that time period could have prevented 886,202 deaths (from the American Public Health Association). People of color are among the populations that have the lowest percentage of health care coverage. Roughly one in five nonelderly Latinos, African Americans and American Indian/Alaska Natives, and one in ten Asian Americans rely on Medicaid for access to health care.
Health care costs generally have risen dramatically over recent years. However, it is not the Medicaid program that is driving those increases. Medicaid’s overall growth rate is lower than that of private health insurance premiums. Cutting funding for Medicaid, rather than addressing underlying health care costs and the growing demand for long-term care, will make the health care crisis our country is facing more acute. Click here for details.

Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.