Trump could target Affordable Care Act and Medicaid to help pay for lower taxes, experts say

Source: CBS News

Updated on: December 17, 2024 / 11:21 AM EST


The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, remains popular with the public, garnering the approval of 54% of U.S. adults, according to a recently released Gallup poll. But experts say that may not insulate the federal health insurance program from change as President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans look to renew $4 trillion in expiring tax cuts.

Many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a signature law passed during Trump's first term, are due to sunset at the end of 2025. Republican leaders are now strategizing on how to extend the cuts, while the president-elect has also pledged to slash corporate taxes and eliminate taxes on workers' tips and overtime pay.

But renewing the TCJA tax breaks alone without reducing federal spending would add nearly $4 trillion to the nation's deficit through 2035, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group focused on reducing the nation's debt.

Trump has already taken two of the biggest government programs — Social Security and Medicare — off the table for potential cuts. Reduced defense spending is also viewed as unlikely, meaning nearly half of federal spending would be protected, Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation,) said in a recent JAMA article. That leaves "Medicaid, which is the next largest source of federal spending, and the ACA as prime targets for spending cuts. The math is inescapable," Levitt stated.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-medicaid-aca-obamacare-affordable-care-act-tax-cuts/