Hospitals condemn prospect of Medicaid cuts as GOP aims to slash spending

For weeks, healthcare advocates have been worried about the prospect of President Trump and Congress cutting spending on Medicaid.

Those fears were amplified when House Republicans introduced a budget resolution proposing more than $4 trillion in cuts in federal spending. The House GOP calls for the House Energy and Commerce cutting $880 billion, and that’s the committee overseeing Medicaid spending.

Trump has previously said he won’t cut Medicare and Social Security spending, so the prospect of cuts for Medicaid become more plausible, industry analysts have said.

The resolution doesn’t specify Medicaid cuts, but hospital trade groups are urging lawmakers to refrain from cuts to Medicaid. Hospitals point out that Medicaid provides health coverage for about 80 million Americans with low incomes and critical funding for hospitals.

Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, said the group “stoutly opposes and categorically condemns any cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that would result from this blueprint.” The group represents the country’s safety-net hospitals, which have a higher percentage of patients relying on Medicaid.

“As the House works out the details of this budget order, we urge lawmakers to consider the devastating impact that Medicaid and Medicare cuts would have on the communities that rely on our essential hospitals,” Siegel said in a statement Wednesday. “As a nation, we cannot afford the resulting loss of life-saving safety net services that millions of Americans need to stay healthy.”

Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a statement Wednesday that the group “urges Congress to take seriously the impact of reductions in health care programs, particularly Medicaid.”

“While some have suggested dramatic reductions in the Medicaid program as part of a reconciliation vehicle, we would urge Congress to reject that approach,” Pollack said. “Medicaid provides health care to many of our most vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, children, the elderly, disabled and many of our working class.”

Even before the House budget resolution, hospital executives have said they were worried about reduced funding for Medicaid.

Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, told Chief Healthcare Executive in an interview earlier this month that hospitals are dreading the possibility of Medicaid cuts.

“The Medicaid program for healthcare and hospitals today is so important for so many lower-income Americans, and it's just critical … that that program be sustained,” Kahn said.

Families USA, a healthcare advocacy group, says that the House GOP resolution offers a clear signal that Republicans are eyeing cuts in Medicaid. Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, called the resolution “a five-alarm fire alert for our health care.”

“House Republican leadership put a giant bullseye on Medicaid, with the intent to strip Americans of their health care benefits to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations,” Wright said in a statement Wednesday.

Several hospital trade groups have formed The Partnership for Medicaid, a nonpartisan group aiming to preserve the program. In a statement last week, the coalition urged Congress to avoid cuts in Medicaid and pledged to work with lawmakers to identify ways to strengthen Medicaid.

“State Medicaid programs are already stretched thin financially. We are concerned that the proposals being discussed would shift more of the program’s costs onto state and local governments, providers, plans, patients, and local taxpayers that would not be able to absorb them,” the group said in a statement.

Several physician groups, representing 400,000 doctors, issued a statement Thursday imploring policymakers to avoid cutting Medicaid. The coalition includes the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, and American Psychiatric Association.

"The impact of cuts to Medicaid funding is significant and wide-reaching, and it must be reconsidered," the groups said in the statement. "Medicaid is a lifeline for our nation’s most vulnerable — from visits with a primary care physician, to maternal health care and pediatrics, to labor and delivery services, to behavioral health and to preventive care that saves lives."