NBC: GOP’s Medicaid Cuts Pose “Existential Threat” for Hospitals Forced to Lay Off Workers and Cut Services

NBC: GOP's Medicaid Cuts Pose "Existential Threat" for Hospitals Forced to Lay Off Workers and Cut Services

New reporting from NBC spotlights how over 400 hospitals across the country are at "high risk of closing or cutting services" as a result of Trump and D.C. Republicans' budget law that gutted Medicaid funding.

"Republican candidates running for governor across the country will be forced to answer for Trump's law that is decimating rural health care, raising health care costs for families, and causing mass layoffs of health care workers," said DGA Communications Director Sam Newton. "This is especially true for GOP candidates for governor Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, Byron Donalds, Randy Feenstra, John James, and Tom Tiffany, among others, who are responsible for these devastating Medicaid cuts becoming law in Congress."

Check out more from NBC's reporting here or read more below:

NBC: Medicaid cuts threaten hundreds of hospitals, new report finds

• More than 400 hospitals across the United States are at high risk of closing or cutting services because of the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," according to an analysis from the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.

• The fallout could make it harder for millions of people to get care and put thousands of health care workers' jobs at risk as hospitals lose a key source of federal funding. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending.

• Across the country, hospitals have already made statements warning they may need to lay off staff or scale back care, including maternity and mental health care, because of the Medicaid cuts. For many patients, hospitals are the last place to turn when there are few or no other options for care.

• "It can be very dangerous for hospitals to be under this kind of strain," [Eileen O'Grady, a researcher in Public Citizen's Congress Watch division] said.

• The analysis found a total of 446 at-risk hospitals, with at least one at-risk hospital in 44 states and Washington, D.C…. The hospitals span both Democratic and Republican-led states, though the states with the largest number of at-risk hospitals are California, New York, Illinois and Washington.

• James Jackson, the CEO of Alameda Health System in Oakland, California, said the Medicaid cuts represent an "existential threat."

• Alameda Health System, which gets 60% of its revenue from Medicaid payments, announced in December that it would lay off nearly 300 employees and lose more than $100 million annually by 2030… Proposed cuts included mental health services, care for patients with chronic conditions and an ambulatory plastic surgery program.

• "I don't think the impact is going to be a positive one," [Jackson] said. "We are often the provider of last recourse, so if we're not able to provide a service, there will be a delay in receiving care at one of the other systems in the area or they may not provide it at all."

• In January, [a Michigan-based hospital system with facilities in other states,] said it was laying off 10.5% of its billing staff. One of its hospitals, St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital in rural northeast Georgia, announced last October it was closing its maternity unit.

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