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The Fourth of July is a day to celebrate our freedom, but now Americans have something much darker to commemorate. On July 4, Congressional Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill<\/a>. Included in the bill is a more than $1 trillion<\/a> cut to Medicaid, America\u2019s largest<\/a> single source of health care coverage. The Trump administration\u2019s rationale<\/a> for the cuts is that Medicaid is a flawed and inefficient system in need of reform. They are not wrong, but their solution certainly is, and it dooms millions<\/a> of Americans.<\/p>\n The United States is in the midst of a health insurance crisis<\/a>. More than 26 million<\/a> Americans cannot afford basic medical care. Medicaid, created for low-income and disabled Americans, sought to address a substantial portion<\/a> of the uninsured population and is now under threat. Amid the political outcry, however, it is easy to forget that Medicaid was never perfect<\/a> to begin with. As the majority<\/a> of Americans who oppose the OBBB grapple with its effects, lawmakers cannot lose sight of the reform Medicaid needs. Righting the ship starts with repealing the GOP\u2019s devastating cuts, but the fight only ends when Medicaid is accessible to all who need it.<\/p>\n Medicaid started<\/a> as a federal program to provide health insurance to low-income mothers, children and people with disabilities. Instead of making Medicaid a federal program \u2014 like Medicare<\/a> \u2014 the Johnson administration outsourced<\/a> Medicaid to the states, allowing each to finance and administer its own system, leading to different requirements across states for determining who was eligible for government healthcare.<\/p>\n One of Medicaid\u2019s greatest weaknesses started as one of its greatest reforms. By the 2008 election, health care was one of the biggest issues<\/a> on the ballot. When former President Barack Obama took office, he set his sights on expanding health care to about 48 million<\/a> uninsured Americans at the time. Passed in 2010, the Affordable Care Act<\/a> \u2014 or Obamacare \u2014 attempted to expand coverage by expanding Medicaid eligibility<\/a> to people making up to 138% of the poverty line. The federal government would reimburse<\/a> each state in full, where it had only provided partial<\/a> funding prior. For people above the poverty line but still struggling to get coverage, the ACA promised subsidies<\/a> for private health insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n