In West Virginia, Medicaid is a lifeline. GOP cuts could devastate the state. [View all]

GOP states are particularly reliant on a program that President Donald Trump and other Republicans have targeted for deep spending reductions.

Hampshire Memorial Hospital is nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains, past more than 20 miles of winding mountain roads dotted with lush trees and ridges. It is the only hospital for a county that spans 645 square miles and, for many of its 24,000 residents, is the sole option for health care ranging from routine ailments to life-threatening emergencies.

Like every rural hospital in West Virginia, Hampshire Memorial relies deeply on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor that covers about one-third of residents in this deep-red state. But its ability to continue treating Hampshire County — among the poorer and sicker counties in the country — has been thrown into doubt by President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending package that he has said he wants on his desk by July 4.

The proposal, which passed the House last month, proposes codifying trillions of dollars in tax cuts from Trump’s first term that primarily benefit the wealthy, along with hundreds of billions of dollars of new spending on immigration enforcement and national defense. It proposes paying for those items largely by slashing Medicaid, which, if passed, would mark the biggest cut in the program’s nearly 60-year history.

During negotiations in the House, Trump warned Republicans in a closed-door meeting: “Don’t f--- around with Medicaid.” But Trump and his aides have been uneven and often contradictory in their promises, sometimes arguing that Medicaid benefits are safe while “waste, fraud and abuse” were not. But the House version of the bill does not make such distinctions while calling for nearly $800 billion in cuts to the program.

https://wapo.st/3ZIyewR

Oh well...