DICKERSON: Senator Toomey, on this question of people moving off of Medicaid into the private market, the concern from critics is that moving them off into the private market puts them in a market where they will be unable, because the subsidies are going away or are lowered in this bill, or the tax credits are shrunk in this bill, and because the people basically will be into a private market where they can’t afford, either if the premiums are low, the deductibles will be too high, or both, premiums high and deductibles high.
TOOMEY: Yes, John, obviously, we have thought about that.
And this bill provides very generous tax credits, considerably more generous than the House. They’re more oriented toward lower- income people, and those are the people who obviously need it.
And I would also point out, I think it’s important to note, the federal government spending on Medicaid is going to grow every year. It’s never going to be cut. It’s never going to shrink. It will eventually be growing at a slightly slower rate.
And we need that in order to make the program viable and to deal with these massive deficits and the mounting debt that we have.