What Kean Jr. Voted For: “N.J. families could face devastating healthcare losses” [NJ.com]

After Republican Congressman Tom Kean Jr. cast a decisive vote for the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, NJ.com reports on just how devastating his vote will be for New Jersey families.

Read how Kean Jr.’s vote will rip away health care, drive up costs, and reduce access to care for New Jersey families and seniors:

• For New Jersey, the law blows a $3.6 billion hole in the $24 billion Medicaid program’s budget, shedding an estimated 360,000 working poor, disabled and elderly people from the program’s rolls, according to a statement from state Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman. Medicaid serves 1.8 million or one in five New Jerseyans.
• “The irony of Congress passing this bill on (Thursday) the eve of Independence Day should not be lost on anyone. Far from advancing equality, this legislation undermines Americans’ fundamental pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness,” Adelman said in a statement Thursday night.
• “It will make it harder for New Jersey families to access health care and food assistance, while shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in costs onto state taxpayers,” she said.
• Deep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will help pay for Trump’s $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that favor wealthy Americans and were due to expire at the end of the year.

• The law reduces the reimbursement rate to hospitals, physicians and other providers who take Medicaid patients.
• Taken together, the funding losses will create a situation in which states “will have to ration care,” Hempstead said. And don’t expect that people with disabilities and senior citizens who rely on nursing home care will be unscathed, she said.
• “You have to ration no matter what. It just becomes more extreme. It definitely affects people with developmental disabilities and seniors,” [Hempstead] said.
• “You could have waiting lists for services,” she said.

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