As Crucial House Vote Looms, Rural Hospital CEOs Make Final Plea to House GOP: Avoid Medicaid Cuts That Will Cost Lives and Burden Local Communities
NEW: 23 Republican WA state legislators join letter to full WA federal delegation, urging them to protect Medicaid
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Finance Committee, joined Washington state health care professionals to highlight statewide alarm and opposition to proposed Medicaid cuts.
"The House Republicans are now trying to cobble together what I believe is a serious attack on Medicaid, and these will have impacts across our economy," said Sen. Cantwell. "It undermines the program by shifting the burden to the states and making the entire healthcare system more expensive."
"If you cut Medicaid, and you cut people on Medicaid, they're not going to stop having health care needs," added Sen. Cantwell. "They're just going to go to a more expensive, unfunded setting to get that care. Medicaid provides the critical financial support for the healthcare sector and for our economies to keep going every day."
Matt Kollman, CEO of Skyline Hospital in White Salmon, warned that the cuts would endanger the survival of rural hospitals, and ultimately the health of rural residents.
“You don't just have the opportunity, when you live in White Salmon, to drive a few blocks extra and go to the next hospital,” Kollman said. “You're talking about a drive that in the best of conditions might be 60 or 90 minutes. That is a disruptive burden for many families, and it would lead to their delay, or possible just outright deferral of health care altogether. And to me, that's not acceptable.”
“I also know that it's not acceptable to other members of our community,” added Kollman. “Recently, I was able to present Senator Cantwell and Representative Newhouse with a letter that was signed by many elected officials and community members, including Republicans, elected Republicans in my district and throughout the state, who are asking Congress to be very careful about what they do with Medicaid. To consider the consequences, to be very thoughtful, and to understand that you're messing with something that is a very intimate and relied on part of people's lives every day.”
Also today, 23 Republican members of the Washington state legislature sent a letter to the entire Washington state federal Congressional delegation, urging the delegation to “protect Medicaid funding for Washington State.”
This week, the Republican-led U.S. House Budget Committee held a rare weekend meeting late Sunday night as part of the effort to rush to the floor a reconciliation bill containing over $700 billion in cuts and significant changes to Medicaid, the federal program that insures many low-income adults and children, pregnant people, seniors, and people with disabilities. Then, early this morning, the House Rules Committee began a meeting at 1 a.m. – when most Americans were asleep – since GOP House leadership have indicated their intent to bring the reconciliation bill and its draconian cuts to the floor for a final vote as soon as later today.
Republican proposals include imposition of work requirements and new restrictions on who can receive long-term care support from Medicaid.
Other participants at the virtual presser were
• Rashad Collins, CEO, Neighborcare Health (Community Health Center with over 20 Seattle-area clinics)
• Kym Clift, CEO, TriState Health (Clarkston, WA)
• Lynn Kimball, Executive Director at Aging & Long Term Care of Eastern Washington
• Dr. Rachel Issaka, gastroenterologist and clinical researcher, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
• Jacquiline Blanco, RN, a Seattle-area perinatal obstetric nurse and Public Policy Committee member at the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses
Video of the event is available HERE and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s opening remarks is available HERE.
Also today, Sen. Cantwell delivered a speech on the Senate floor, warning of the impacts to state economies and budgets if the Republican proposal becomes law. Video of her floor speech is available HERE and a transcript is available HERE.
Medicaid, known as Apple Health in Washington state, covers over 1.9 million Washingtonians. On May 2, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report highlighting the impact that Medicaid cuts would have on Washington state's highly-ranked long-term care system for seniors and people with disabilities. In February, she additionally released a snapshot report that demonstrated how cuts would harm health care access in Washington state, and followed up with a report in March that dove into impacts on the Puget Sound region.
Highlights of those snapshot reports include:
- In Washington state, WA-04 (Central Washington) and WA-05 (Eastern Washington) have the highest proportions of adults and total population on Medicaid (Apple Health). In District 4, 70% of children are on Medicaid.
- In the Puget Sound, children in Seattle's blue-collar strongholds would feel the deepest pain from Medicaid cuts. More than half of children in Burien, SeaTac, Kent, Federal Way, Auburn, Renton, and Rainier Valley depend on Medicaid.
- In an exclusive new survey of 68 WA nursing homes, 67 of 68 would cut services if Medicaid were cut by 5% or more, and 65% would consider closing.
Over the past two months, Sen. Cantwell also took a tour around the state to hear from folks who would be directly impacted by cuts to Medicare. Doctors, patients, and health care providers in Seattle, Spokane, the Tri-Cities, and Wenatchee warned that such cuts would devastate Washington state’s health care system and limit access to lifesaving care.
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