Kellyanne Conway is defending remarks made over the weekend about cuts to Medicaid in the new health care bill being pushed forward by Republicans. “These are not cuts to Medicaid, George,” she said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” speaking to George Stephanopoulos. “This slows the rate for the future and it allows governors more flexibility with Medicaid dollars because they’re closest to the people in need.”
The counselor to President Donald Trump went on: “If you’re currently in Medicaid, if you became a Medicaid recipient through the Obamacare expansion, you’re grandfathered in. We’re talking about in the future.”
In fact, the new bill contains $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
Now Conway is clarifying her remarks. “It’s not a lie. In fact, this is slowing the growth of Medicaid and allowing governors more flexibility in their states to be able to give the dollars out… because they are closest to the people in need,” she said Monday morning on “Fox and Friends.”
She added that “Medicaid continues to be funded” but that it “would be unsustainable and unaffordable” over time. “Because ObamaCare failed to bring the costs down for health care, so these states are having very difficult time meeting the bills. Medicaid is intended for the poor, the needy, and the sick,” added Conway on Monday.
The counselor maintained that cuts to Medicaid would not affect people who deserve to be using it, insinuating that there are many “able-bodied” Americans who use Medicaid that shouldn’t.
“What it’s done under ObamaCare it’s expanded the Medicaid pool of people who, quote, qualified beyond that. So if you have an able bodied American not poor, sick, needy,” she said. “We’re not talking about the elderly, the children, the pregnant women, the disabled. If you are able-bodied and you would like to go and find employment and employer sponsored benefits then you should be able to do that.”