House Republicans have revealed legislation that amounts to hundreds of pages of massive cuts largely to Medicaid. In Arizona, Medicaid is known as AHCCCS, and more than 2 million Arizonans rely on it for their health care.
Health care leaders and patient advocates joined Protect Our Care Arizona and Honest Arizona on a virtual call where they talked about the proposed $880 billion in cuts.
Sixty-seven-year-old Chuck Albrecht is an HIV advocate living in Phoenix.
"They refer to me as what's called a long-term survivor aging with HIV," Albrecht said, in part because of life-saving HIV drugs, which are covered by Medicaid.
"And in regard to Medicaid coverage, people living with HIV and AIDS have had access to quality care. They cannot be denied insurance through the ACA as a result of their HIV status. They have access to medications that maintain their virus and keep our viral loads undetectable," Albrecht said.
Other potential changes for recipients include new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents.
Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, says the state’s Medicaid program already submitted its waiver request.
"We don't know what the, you know, what Congress is going to say the definition of able-bodied is, we do know what our Medicaid agency AHCCCS says about the definition of able-bodied, and they were very thoughtful about excluding a lot of populations … from those work requirements," he said.
Humble says rural communities would likely be hit hardest by these proposed cuts.
