WASHINGTON _ Even as prospects for a new Republican push to roll back the Affordable Care Act remain dim, the White House is doubling down on the repeal effort, calling for massive cuts to health care assistance in its 2019 budget.
The budget blueprint _ which lays out a host of Trump administration health care proposals _outlines nearly $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next decade to Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor.
And it would slash almost $700 billion in federal health care spending that helps low- and moderate-income Americans who rely on insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 health care law, often called Obamacare.
The administration said the sweeping changes reflect a goal to "empower patients and doctors to make decisions about their health care while reducing burdensome regulations and building a patient-centered system of care."
But cuts of this magnitude _ which parallel repeal legislation pushed unsuccessfully by GOP congressional leaders last year _ would likely leave tens of millions of more Americans without health coverage, independent analyses have indicated.
