Four More Years: Looking at proposed changes to Medicaid under incoming Trump administration

We continue our series exploring what four more years of a Trump presidency could mean for Illinois, and we turn now to Medicaid — the government program of healthcare for the poor, elderly, and disabled. According to the state, 3.3 million Illinoisans rely on some form of Medicaid for their  health coverage. That’s about one in four people in Illinois.
 
Some examples of Medicaid programs in the state are: All Kids, FamilyCare, Moms and Babies, Former Foster Care, and Aid to Aged, Blind and Disabled. As with so many areas of government we’ve been talking about this week, the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress have ideas about changing Medicaid-rom policy to personnel.
 
Among the plans are potential spending cuts and changes in the way Medicaid money is distributed to states, which administer the programs on behalf of the federal government. Two experts in economic and public policy join the program to weigh in. 
 
GUESTS: 
 
David Merriman 
James J. Stukel Presidential Professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Co-Lead, Fiscal and Economic Policy Working Group, Institute of Government and Public Affairs

Joan Alker 
Research Professor and Executive Director
Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy Center for Children and Families