Congressional Budget Office Estimate on the Better Care Reconciliation Act

June 30, 2017

An updated report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) verifies what we already knew - that the cuts to Medicaid proposed by the U.S. Senate are going to get much worse after the first decade. The CBO determined that by 2036, Medicaid spending will be 35 percent less than under current law. By placing a cap on Medicaid, this creates a mechanism for future cuts by simply changing the growth rate. The report sums it up succinctly on the last page, saying that the level of cuts will force states to make hard choices. States will either have to raise taxes, take money from other places (like education), cut payments to health providers, eliminate optional services (which includes most therapies and community services, restrict eligibility for enrollment, or adopt some combination of those approaches. (See page 4 of the CBO report). These options will disproportionately - and negatively - impact people with disabilities.

AUCD urges people with disabilities and families to meet with Members of Congress over the recess wherever they can find them - at parades, rallies, in their home offices, at church, etc. and make sure they understand how devastating these policies will be for all Americans, but especially people with disabilities and those who are aging. AUCD urges the Congress to work in a bipartisan fashion to make reforms that will actually fix problems in the health care system, and include people with disabilities in that process.

>>See Longer-Term Effects of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 on Medicaid Spending, (June 29, 2017).