DAY 160: Trump lies about cut to Medicaid in Trumpcare

Donald Trump tweeted this today:

Democrats purposely misstated Medicaid under new Senate bill - actually goes up. pic.twitter.com/necCt4K6UH

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017

That's a lie. The Senate version of Trumpcare cuts Medicaid by triggering state laws that end the expansion of Medicaid and by using general inflation for its inflationary index, rather than the inflation rate for the medical sector.

This was pointed out by The Atlantic almost a week before:

The much more drastic changes in the Senate bill as compared to the House bill come in the realm of Medicaid. The House bill immediately ended enhanced funding for the Medicaid expansion to able-bodied low-income adults under the ACA, while the Senate bill would slowly phase that funding out. This, in theory, would put millions fewer people immediately in the ranks of the uninsured and increase government spending over the House plan. But seven states (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Washington) have “trigger laws” that would immediately void their Medicaid expansions with any change in federal support, and it’s likely more states would choose to shutter their expansions well before the end of the enhanced funding window in the face of rising costs.

The House’s plan also restructured the open-ended funding of Medicaid to a per-capita cap scheme, where states receive a capped amount of funding each year per enrollee, and could choose to receive the funding up front in block grants. That Medicaid restructuring increased yearly funding by the medical Consumer Price Index plus 1 percent, a measure designed to keep per-capita caps roughly in line with inflation in the industry, but one that would also underfund Medicaid over time, leading to a growing gap between the number of patients who would be eligible under current guidelines, and the funds available to pay for their care.

Several independent analyses have concluded that this funding structure would lead to large-scale shortfalls in every state, which would need to be closed by reducing enrollment or benefits, and cutting capacity to respond to disasters and public-health crises. Those affected most would be poor children, people with mental-health issues, and disabled people.

This means that yes, technically Medicaid would receive more fundiong because it has to in order to keep up with inflation. But the increase would not be enough to cover the people who need Medicaid.

Which turns Trump's tweet into a lie. And very despicable lie, as he's trying to sell people the idea that Medicaid won't be cut when it WILL be cut in real dollars.

UPDATE: On June 30, The New York Times published that the Senate bill would cut Medicaid by 35% over two decades. And that's according to the calculations of the Congressional Budget Office.