Rural Minds Founder Has Eye On Federal Budget - Jamestown Post Journal
As the United States's current administration continues to try and drastically reduce the federal deficit, a local non-profit organization is worried those cuts will harm many in rural America - including here in Chautauqua County.
Rural Minds founder Jeff Winton noted that while the recently passed Continuing Resolution keeps Medicaid and Medicare at current levels, it is only guaranteed for the next six months. At the same time, the enhanced premium tax credits in the Affordable Care Act marketplace - which increase the affordability of marketplace health insurance coverage - will expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress extends them.
"While proposed Medicaid cuts could be widespread, the 46 million people who live in rural America would likely face the most dramatic impact, and doubly so without the ACA tax credits," Winton said. "Medicaid and the ACA marketplace play a disproportionately important role in rural communities' financially fragile healthcare systems; in rural America, incomes are lower, and fewer people have employer-sponsored insurance than in other parts of the country."