As hospitals close and Medicaid is gutted, Wittman wants you to know you're better off
If you squint, you'll feel healthier
Rob Wittman and Republicans’ desperation is on full display with his latest volley of disinformation about HR1 and Medicaid. This "mythbusting" is blatant, deliberate nonsense dressed up in Rob's "moderate everyman" clothing. This is simply disgraceful. Here's why.
As we've documented multiple times, HR1 cuts $1.2 trillion from safety net programs, with $50.4 billion specifically from rural hospitals. 1.8 million rural Americans will lose coverage. But Wittman's wealthy donors are getting tax breaks, so let that comfort us as we die from the flu.
Wittman wants to give you someone to hate on while he scurries around shoveling your money into his donors' pockets. The stuff about "able-bodied adults" and immigrants is classic inflammatory nonsense. Fraud in Medicaid is mostly committed by the providers, not consumers. And illegal immigrants have never EVER been eligible for, and have never received, Medicaid services.
Next he claims HR1 will "prevent rural hospital closures." Fact: HR1 cuts Medicaid to the bone. The $50bn Rural Health Transformation Fund was primarily a Dem Party idea to soften the blow of other HR1 provisions, but even that will cover only 1/3 of expected $137bn in rural losses.
The $200m for CMS he mentions is for a competitive grant. States will have to apply for that money - taking up more time and resources from state budgets - and it won't even start to address the problems HR1 creates.
Because of HR1, 300+ hospitals face closure risk, and three rural Virginia clinics have already announced their closures. The impact of HR1 is already being felt - and it hasn't really kicked in yet!
Wittman mentions a 2021 JAMA study, and he fundamentally misrepresents its findings. It examined Medicaid expansion effects, not cuts - he's cherry-picking to suit his narrative, and it doesn't wash.
The fact is, because of HR1 VA faces $1.7 billion in rural Medicaid cuts, Virginia hospitals will lose up to $26bn, and 55,500 people will lose coverage.
While he postures as a protector of rural Virginia, Wittman's claims are deliberate disinformation that conceals how he, the Trump regime, and Republicans in Congress are crucifying healthcare to deliver tax breaks to the wealthy.