Medicaid is the stealth issue in the current budget debate
That was the subject line of an email I received this morning. The author is Scott Lilly, now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a long-time key staffer for former Rep. David Obey on the House Committee on Appropriations.
The text of the email was relatively short:
For the last couple of months I have been looking at the Medicaid program and what Ryan would do to it. Today we are posting a report on the proposal which I think you may find interesting. There is a great deal that most people don't know about Medicaid and one is that a very big share of the benefits go to protect middle class people and their families from financial disaster in the event of severe accidents, catastrophic illness of prolonged infirmity in old age. Another is that Medicaid has played a major role in the dramatic decline this country has achieved in preventing