Who lives, who dies, who decides, who pays? As featured in the February 2018 Woman's National Democratic Club Political Dispatch

Who lives, who dies, who decides, who pays?

In a continuing and disturbing trend of a Congress of majority upperclass white men deciding how those of lower socioeconomic status will make a living and go about their lives, there seems to be no end in sight to the ongoing assault on social welfare programs. In the first month of this new year, Congress granted new permission for states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, plans to expand “conscience” protections for healthcare providers, and dwindling Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding – again.

During the average month, the President of the United States spends $3.6 million on personal travel to play golf (Kalmbacher, 2018); eleven months of the President’s golf fund could pay for CHIP coverage for all of the District of Columbia for a year (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017). It’s also one-tenth of the amount of state and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants in Maryland in the same length of time (Gee, Gardner, Hill, & Wiehe, 2017). One month of the President’s personal travel expenses could pay for Medicaid coverage for 7,531 people that same month (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014).

Putting aside the President’s golf habits, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December of 2017 will ultimately cost taxpayers between $1.4 trillion and $2.2 trillion and prioritizes tax breaks for large companies. While the bill was intended to allow for large companies to increase worker wages over time, some companies have chosen to offer one-time bonuses and reap the future benefits of their lower tax rates as profit to benefit the upper levels of management (Domonoske, 2018). The bill also eliminates the insurance mandate enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, of which an unintended consequence will be that pooled money for sicker patients is decreased and insurance premiums will be increased. There is no doubt that the policy changes mentioned here will be paid for not only with American tax dollars, but also with American lives.

The choices the American government is making at the moment are not prioritizing the needs of the people who are least able to make it on their own and are in the greatest need of social support. Such decisions will have a far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable populations that are already experiencing great health inequity.

-- Jenna Oien, member of the Health Policy Task Force

(Link to publication: http://democraticwoman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Political-Dispatch-Feb-2018.pdf)

References:

Domonoske, C. (2018, January 11). Walmart, citing new tax law, will raise starting wages; Also closes 63 Sam's Clubs. The Two-Way. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/11/577314202/citing-new-tax-law-walmart-to-raise-starting-wages-expand-parental-leave

Gee, L. C., Gardner, M., Hill, M. E., & Wiehe, M. (2017). Undocumented immigrants’ state & local tax contributions. Retrieved from https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2017.pdf

Kalmbacher, C. (2018, January 1). Report: The American Public spent $43 million last year so Trump could play golf. MSN News. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/report-the-american-public-spent-dollar43-million-last-year-so-trump-could-play-golf/ar-BBHLCNo

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2014). State health facts: Medicaid spending per enrollee (Full or partial benefit). Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/medicaid-spending-per-enrollee/

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2017, June 23). State health facts: Total CHIP expenditures. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/total-chip-spending/? currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc %22%7D