Opinion: If You Won’t Raise Taxes or Retirement Ages, You Quietly Let the Old Fade Away When Medicaid Benefits Are Clipped

Proposed Medicaid and SNAP benefits cuts seem easier than raising taxes, the silent cost is measured in lives lost though, not dollars saved.

Holly Springs, NC, Jul. 2, 2025 — We don't often discuss how policies reduce spending. They hide behind jargon like "eligibility redetermination," "block grants," and "fiscal sustainability." But let’s call it what it is.

The new “One Big Beautiful Bill,” recently passed by the Senate, includes $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Behind its numbers is a simple, chilling strategy: avoid raising taxes, dodge difficult debates about retirement or eligibility ages, and instead, strip services away quietly until people give up or die trying to stay covered.

Provisions in the bill are expected to strip over 10 million people of healthcare coverage, and it disproportionately impacts the elderly. From slashing Medicaid budgets to blocking states from using supplemental funding sources, the legislation targets the mechanics that keep many older adults, especially low-income seniors, in care.

Medicaid eligibility will now require redetermination every six months. For an older adult with cognitive decline or without consistent access to technology or a social worker, this is a fast path to falling through the cracks. Rural hospitals and long-term care facilities, already operating on razor-thin margins, are bracing for closures and service cuts.

It’s not overt rationing. It’s death by paperwork. Death by bureaucratic attrition.

And this quiet erosion doesn’t stop at public policy. The private sector has long been complicit. Employers, especially those that self-insure, understand that older employees cost more to cover, sometimes twice as much as younger ones. And so they go.

More than half of workers over age 50 are pushed out of their jobs before they’re ready to retire, often under the guise of restructuring. Entire departments get "flattened." Roles are made redundant. Early retirement packages are pushed with a smile, but the motive is consistent. Eliminate the high-cost employee before they add to next year’s premiums.

If you can’t fire someone for their age, you fire them for the cost associated with their age.

This isn’t conspiracy. It’s convenience.

Let’s take a step back. We could raise the Medicare eligibility age. We could increase the payroll tax cap. We could negotiate prescription drug prices. We could overhaul the cost structure of end-of-life care. We could do all these things and more to make the system smarter, more humane, and more sustainable.

But we don’t. Instead, we gut the safety net. We pad corporate margins. We offer tax cuts to the wealthy and strip healthcare from people who need it most.

In the process, we don’t directly say we’re reducing the number of elderly Americans. We just design a system in which they’re less likely to survive it.

That’s the real policy lever at work here. Let time, hassle, and scarcity do what politics cannot. Can’t raise taxes? Cut access. Can’t raise retirement age? Shrink the services. Can’t ration openly? Let people die waiting.

This is how you reduce a population, quietly, passively, and plausibly.

And unless we start saying so, out loud and without euphemism, we’re complicit in letting that become the norm.

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This editorial reflects the opinion of Holly Springs Update. It represents our perspective on an issue we believe is important to the community. While our reporting remains objective and fact-based, our opinion pieces aim to provide context, spark conversation, and advocate for what we believe serves the best interests of our readers. We welcome respectful responses and diverse viewpoints. Share yours below or by contacting us at news@hollyspringsupdate.com.