Cuts Proposed to Medicare, Medicaid, and Disability Services  1f4x57

Last month, the US House of Representatives ed a budget reconciliation bill that proposes cutting over a trillion dollars in Federal health care spending. The program that would see the largest cuts is Medicaid, which provides health insurance to people with low income and people with disabilities. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill, if ed into law, would cut over 800 billion dollars from Medicaid alone, resulting in nearly 11 million Americans losing Medicaid coverage. The bill also proposes cuts to the Affordable Care Act, SNAP, and to Medicare, which provides coverage to more than 61 million adults age 65 or older and almost 7 million people with disabilities under the age of 65. Meanwhile, here in California, disability rights advocates have been flocking to Sacramento in recent weeks to push back on Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed state budget, which includes massive cuts to the In-Home ive Services, or IHSS, program, as well as cuts to services for people with developmental disabilities. IHSS provides in-home care for people with disabilities and older adults in California. For more on these proposed cuts at the state and Federal level, we are ed by two guests. Claudia Center is the Legal Director at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, or DREDF, Prior to her time at DREDF, Claudia was Senior Staff Attorney in the Disability Rights Program at the ACLU. We’re also ed by Ted Jackson, the Director of Public Policy and Community Engagement at the Marin Center for Independent Living. Ted is also the Statewide Director of the Disability Organizing Network here in California. 1f2249