The Trump administration proposed budget hits Ogle County head on. If you or a relative is 65 or older, expect cuts to Medicare of $845 billion over the next 10 years. More rural hospitals will close as they won’t be able to absorb the costs.
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Dear Editor,
The Trump administration proposed budget hits Ogle County head on. If you or a relative is 65 or older, expect cuts to Medicare of $845 billion over the next 10 years. More rural hospitals will close as they won’t be able to absorb the costs.
Charles N. “Chip” Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents more than 1,000 for-profit hospitals and health systems, said the budget “imposes arbitrary and blunt Medicare cuts … The impact on care for seniors would be devastating.”
Trump’s budget would reduce crop insurance subsidies, with a projected savings of $22.1 billion by 2029. Spending for conservation programs would also be cut.
Over $220 billion would be cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which provides groceries for low income families. Ogle County will be hit twice as hard as there will be a food box delivery for urban and suburban areas but it hasn’t been determined how food boxes would be delivered to rural residences. Thus adding a middleman delivery service instead of coupons will cost more, thereby further reducing funds for food for needy families.
By the way, the majority of those nationally receiving SNAP are white families. Illegal immigrants can’t get SNAP benefits.
Trump’s budget would slash the National Institutes of Health’s funding by about 12 percent, and the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by about 10 percent. This is a time when measles and other diseases are in the headlines. The opioid crisis needs billions more not cuts.
Spending on the National Institutes of Health, a longtime favorite of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, would be reduced by $4.5 billion, with the National Cancer Institute proposed to absorb the largest chunk of that cut. Think of that. Cutting cancer research. Who doesn’t know someone or a relative who died of cancer?
Ogle County voters supported Trump. Now we must pay up out of our own pockets – something the elderly, poor, and farmers just can’t afford.
Pam Farris
Rochelle
