5/19/25 - Newsletter changes, and more on Medicaid
Good afternoon!
Last week was a maintenance week for Disability Thinking Weekday. You may notice the new fonts, colors, and graphics. Also, the main sections of each newsletter – Weekday Links, Take Action, and Comment, Subscribe & Support – are more clearly marked for easier navigation.
I also spent some time last week thinking about other, more substantial changes that I might make in the coming weeks and months. Possibilities include:
- Monthly essays on disability topics.
- Monthly “Five Questions” type of interviews with interesting people in disability culture.
- A change in frequency, from every weekday to every other weekday, once a week, or some other schedule.
These potential changes will depend a lot on reader feedback. The scope and focus of this newsletter mainly reflects how I want to explore disability issues and culture. But I also want to make the newsletter appealing and useful to all of you. So, please do let me know what you would like to see. You can comment below, or send me an email at: apulrang@icloud.com
How do Republicans plan to cut health coverage? Two basic ways.
Loren Adler and Matthew Fiedler, Washington Post - May 15, 2025
"The new Republican plan to cut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies for the privately insured can seem complex and arcane, involving tweaks to obscure state taxes and revamped income verification schedules. But the overall story is simple: The plan saves money mainly by removing millions of people from coverage, while offering no alternative means to insure them ... House Republicans are cutting health coverage programs in two basic ways: (1) narrowing eligibility and making it harder to enroll and stay enrolled; and (2) shifting Medicaid costs from the federal government to the states."
Federal Medicaid Cuts Would Force States To Eliminate Services for Disabled Adults, Older Adults, and Children
Mia Ives-Rublee, Center for American Progress - May 16, 2025
"And although Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told a 6-year-old boy with Down syndrome and his mother that his Medicaid “is not going anywhere,” the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would cause at least 10.3 million people to lose Medicaid coverage."
MEDICAID IS LIFE FOR MY AUTISTIC SON
Carol Greenburg, Thinking Person's Guide to Autism - May 14, 2025
"My son now rents a room in an ordinary house near his father and me. By relying on the Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Model that is the Gold Standard for adults with his high level of need for support, his Medicaid budget allows for 24/7 Direct Service Professionals, who help him balance living on his own, with flourishing in community with familiar people. The more he grows as a person the more focus he has. His first solo art show was last year. His paintings hung beside those of other artists at a group show."
This Medicaid situation continues to develop. It's hard to keep up. But two important themes seem to have emerged in how it all would affect people with disabilities.
First, Republicans in Congress want to cut Medicaid without appearing to cut Medicaid. They certainly don't want to appear to be cutting it for the kinds of disabled people who were protesting in Washington, DC last week. So they are focusing on ways to make other kinds of people ineligible – that "other" being intentionally vague, suggested by words like "fraud and abuse." I haven't heard the argument made explicitly yet, but we should be prepared for it – something like, "We're going to protect Medicaid for proper disabled people by cutting off all those lazy non-disabled, and fake disabled people."
Second, they want to force states to pay more of the bill for Medicaid in general. That means that in lots of states, all sorts of people will lose services including a lot of disabled people who depend on Medicaid programs for more than just basic health care – but also home care and community-based, individualized services.
And let's not forget that the context for it all isn't simple fiscal responsibility. They need to cut programs like Medicaid in order to pay for the massive tax cuts they want for the very richest people in the US, and DOGE doing its worst hasn't saved anywhere near enough money to do it.
Disability Thinking Weekday is a Monday-Friday newsletter with links and commentary on disability-related articles and other content. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe — for free, or with a paid subscription. A free subscription brings a newsletter to your email each weekday, and gives you access to Comments. Benefits of paid subscription also include:
- A monthly recap with links to all of the previous month's shared articles, organized by topic.
- Listing as a supporter, and a link to your website if you have one.
- You can recommend one disability-related article for me to share per month in a weekday post.
To to subscribe, upgrade to paid, or make a one-time donation, click one of the buttons below:
I am so grateful for your help and engagement, in whichever forms you choose!