Impact of Republican Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in Delaware

The Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have done the work to estimate the effects of implementing the Ryan cuts to Medicare and Medicaid on a congressional district basis. They’ve created an interactive map that will show you a report on the estimated impacts for Medicare or Medicaid.

Delaware Medicare Changes (pdf):

• Increase prescription drug costs for 12,800 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who enter the Part D donut hole, forcing them to pay an extra $126 million for drugs over the next decade.
• Eliminate new preventive care benefits for 142,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Delaware.

If you are 54 or younger (where the most changes would be made):

• Deny 650,000 individuals age 54 and younger in Delaware access to Medicare’s guaranteed benefits.
• Increase the out-of-pocket costs of health coverage by over $6,000 per year in 2022 and by almost $12,000 per year in 2032 for the 141,000 individuals in the district who are between the ages of 44 and 54.
• Require the 650,000 individuals in Delaware between the ages of 44 and 54 to save an additional $32.9 billion for their retirement – an average of $182,000 to $287,000 per individual – to pay for the increased cost of health coverage over their lifetimes. Younger residents of the district will have to save even higher amounts to cover their additional medical costs.
• Raise the Medicare eligibility age by at least one year to age 66 or more for 78,000 individuals in Delaware who are age 44 to 49 and by two years to age 67 for 512,000 individuals in Delaware who are age 43 or younger.

Delaware Medicaid Changes (pdf):

In Delaware, which Rep. John C. Carney, Jr. represents, these provisions could:
• Reduce coverage for 10,800 dual eligible seniors and individuals with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to supplement their Medicare coverage or pay their Medicare cost sharing.
• Jeopardize nursing home care for 2,400 whose expenses are paid by Medicaid.
• Impair the health care of 73,000 children, including 7,800 newborns each year, who receive coverage under Medicaid.
• Cut payments to hospitals for 54,000 emergency room visits paid for by Medicaid each year.
• Cut payments to hospitals for 19,200 inpatient visits paid for by Medicaid each year.
• Reduce jobs and hurt economic growth by eliminating $1.9 billion in Medicaid spending.

You can see where they get their data to make these estimates at the end of each District’s Report. And these two reports for Delaware are worth reading in their entirety (they aren’t more than 4 pages long) to get more information and context for these numbers.

This is a really nice tool from Democrats as a way to really personalize what ending Medicare or Medicaid would mean close to home.