The Great Unwinding. Millions thrown off healthcare rolls. Many are children.
Illinois Democrats in Congress who voted no to the debt limit McCarthy/Biden compromise were my own Congressmember Delia Ramirez along with Chuy Garcia and Jan Schakowsky.
All from Chicago.
But that’s it. The rest of Illinois Democrats voted yes.
I’m glad the three Chicago folks voted no. I would have voted no too.
But it was a sort of a no risk vote. If Speaker McCarthy couldn’t get enough members of his Republican caucus to pass it, the threat of default would have been so great that even Ramirez, Garcia and Schadkowsky might have been excused for voting yes.
I wouldn’t have blamed them but I kind of do.
McCarthy promised 150 Republicans. He squeezed out 149.
The MAGA Republican Freedom Caucus is better at saying no than the Democrat’s Progressive Caucus, and that’s their power.
In negotiations the power of no is great. Say yes and the deal is done. Say no and you get to come back and fight another day.
The MAGA Freedom Caucus understands this. The Progressives? Not so much.
Meanwhile, if the Senate votes to go along, millions will be added to the numbers of hungry Americans due to budget cuts the Democrats agreed to.
Military spending will be untouched.
Billionaire tax breaks will continue.
Some liberals are trying to make the deal look not so bad. It’s lipstick on a pig.
Independent of the bill to raise the debt limit is the fact that millions are concurrently losing their health coverage by being tossed off of Medicaid.
It is called The Great Unwinding, the purging of Medicaid rolls since the official ending of the pandemic.
Over 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1.
Kaiser Health News reports:
Before the unwinding, more than 1 in 4 Americans — 93 million — were covered by Medicaid or CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to KFF Health News’ analysis of the latest enrollment data. Half of all kids are covered by the programs.
About 15 million people will be dropped over the next year as states review participants’ eligibility in monthly tranches.
Kaiser Health News calls the numbers “staggering.”
I call it tragic.