Why healthcare spending was at the center of the US government shutdown battle | US politics

The federal government closed in part on Wednesday, due to a battle between the Democrats and the Republicans for health spending.

Democrats had declared that they would not vote for the legislation to keep the government open unless Donald Trump and the Republicans, who hold the majority at the Congress, accept reverse cups in Medicaid and extend subsidies to the plans of the affordable care law. This did not respect any of the votes in the Senate on Tuesday.

In June, the American president approved the legislation he called his “large and beautiful bill”, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would reduce federal medicaid expenses by $ 793 billion and increased the number of people not insured by 7.8 million.

The savings in Federal Medicaid expenditure will largely come from the implementation of new requirements, which include the realization of 80 hours of work or community service activities per month, or the satisfaction of exemption criteria.

The law also means that the premium tax credits implemented during the COVVI-19 Pandemic for the insurance purchased via the Health Insurance Market will expire at the end of 2025. This would make coverage more expensive and would lead to 3.1 million more people without health insurance, according to the CBO.

“We are not going to support a partisan republican spending bill which continues to empty the health care of everyday Americans,” said Jeffries after negotiation with Trump and Republican leaders on Monday.

Meanwhile, Trump doubled on Tuesday at a press conference at the Oval Office that if the parties cannot reach an agreement, “we can do things during the closure that are irreversible, which are bad for them,” Trump told journalists from the oval office on Tuesday afternoon. “Like cutting a large number of people, cutting things they love, cutting programs they love.”

He did not mention Medicaid or the affordable care law, but said: “We can do things medically and other, including the advantages”.

However, there could be an opening for negotiations in the coming weeks. The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, told the Senate on Tuesday that Democrats should vote to keep the government open until November 21 and that he would be happy to resolve the “question of Crédit Aca” before the expiration of credits at the end of the year.