The number of people enrolled in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans fell by more than 5 million in the last 12 months, according to a new report from the advocacy group Protect Our Care.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The decline stems in part from President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill — which was signed into law last July — and the expiration of the enhanced ACA subsidies, the group says.The law includes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years; the subsidies expired in December after Republicans declined to extend them, leading to double- to triple-digit premium increases for millions of people.Health policy experts had warned that the two changes would dramatically reduce health coverage in the U.S.The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency that provides economic and budget analysis to Congress, estimated last year that there would be roughly 15 million more uninsured people by 2034 due to the Medicaid cuts and expiring subsidies.“We’re already at 5 million,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care.
“This is going to get worse.”Experts cautioned that some of the enrollment declines may be the result of people switching to job-based insurance, but the scale of the decline suggests many people likely lost their health coverage.“This was an entirely predictable consequence of the multilayered cuts and restrictions on eligibility,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, who was not involved in the report.
“It will cost Americans in lost lives and economic distress.”It’s not uncommon for people who lose health insurance to delay or forgo care, waiting until their conditions become more serious.“People who lack coverage get sicker sooner and they die earlier,” Woodhouse said.“People put off going to the doctor or they can�...