As Medicare and Medicaid turned 53 years old on July 30, the two historic healthcare programs covering 120 million Americans—including 470,800 recipients in Maine —are under threat from Trump-GOP tax and budget cuts.•

Americans for Tax Fairness and allied organizations have released individual state reports marking the programs’ anniversaries, one of which details the impact the GOP’s proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would have on Maine residents.

The report also explains how the new tax law mostly benefits the wealthy and corporations in Maine, creating a cruel tradeoff of tax cuts that mostly enrich the already wealthy leading to budget cuts that harm working families.

The report finds:

• 470,800 Maine residents enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid face threats to their coverage as President Trump and the GOP try to pay for the deficits caused by their tax cuts, which mostly benefit the state’s wealthiest families and most profitable corporations.

• Trump, who as a candidate promised never to cut Medicare or Medicaid, now is seeking a total of $1.3 trillion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA.

• House Republicans propose slashing $2 trillion from Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA to reduce the debt and pay for the tax cuts.

• Parents in a Maine family of three can make no more than $21,819 to qualify for Medicaid. The median income of Medicare recipients nationwide is about $26,000.

• By comparison,the 6,920 Maine residents who make up the state’s wealthiest 1 percent have an average annual income of $1.3 million. Each will get a tax cut of over $31,900 a year on average under the Trump-GOP tax law.

• Trump and the GOP still want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protects 548,300 Maine residents with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage or charged exorbitant premiums.

• The Trump-GOP tax law gave the nation’s 10 largest drug companies a $76 billion tax cut on their accumulated offshore profits, even as those firms have jacked up prices on their most widely used products by up to 15 percent annually in recent years.