America’s Essential Hospitals President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, has called out the threats of the House’s $880 billion proposed cut to federal health spending on small communities across the country in an April 10 commentary in Becker’s Hospital Review.
“A cut that deep would be disastrous for working families and children in small-town America, where Medicaid means health, productivity, and financial stability,” writes Siegel,
Non-elderly adults and children in small and/or rural communities are more likely than urban dwellers to rely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, and South Carolina, at least half of children in small towns and rural areas depend on Medicaid or CHIP.
Siegel goes on to mention the economic consequences of the $880 billion proposed cut to Medicaid, as essential hospitals are often a community’s largest employer. In 2022, essential hospitals were responsible for $283 billion in economic activity and 6.7 million jobs nationwide, including in many low-income communities.
America’s Essential hospitals also wrote a letter to Congress on April 2 expressing concerns about policies targeting Medicaid state directed payments and provider taxes, as well as changes to the federal medical assistance percentage, per capita caps, and other policies.
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