Although President Trump’s (and Congressman Brett Guthrie’s) “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts $8 billion from the Medicaid budget going forward, Republicans piously proclaim, “We’re not cutting Medicaid. We’re saving it for those who really need it by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The bill’s supporters like to talk about able-bodied slackers dishonestly racking up Medicaid benefits. That’s hooey. Since two thirds of Medicaid recipients already work and most of the rest are old people, unpaid caretakers, children, or certifiably disabled, there can’t be that many able-bodied fakers abusing the system. And even if there were (there aren’t), eliminating them wouldn’t save much.

Unlike Social Security, Medicaid doesn’t dole out benefits to individual claimants. Payments go to the doctors and hospitals that treat them. Imagine a Medicaid cheat claiming his bad back keeps him from working. Why bother? Any money involved would go to his doctor or chiropractor, not to him, unless there were some sort of collusion involved. Again, that’s impossible to imagine on an $8 billion dollar scale.

No, the real Medicaid money is in old and/or sick people who need expensive procedures and extended care. Chemotherapy can cost up to $100,000. Nursing homes charge up to $10,000 a month. To save real Medicaid money, the program will have to get people who need those kinds of support off the rolls.

The new Medicaid busywork Republicans are demanding will do that. Now canceled experiments in Arkansas and Georgia have shown that piling on more reporting requirements to support Medicaid claims has one notable effect: removing qualified people too sick or too harried to keep up with the added paperwork. Don’t be fooled. The great majority of the 11 million people Republicans are cutting from Medicaid will be those who need it most.

Joe Glaser

Bowling Green