'Catastrophic': Hospitals already straining over GOP cuts to Medicaid

The cuts to Medicaid contained in the recently passed Republican budget law are already having a damaging impact in multiple states, as both local hospitals and state governments struggle financially to make up funding gaps.

As NC Newsline reported on Wednesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has announced plans to cut Medicaid spending by $319 million starting on October 1, which the publication said "means the state will reduce rates by 3% to all medical providers, as well as cuts of 8-10% for inpatient and residential services and 10% for behavioral therapy and analysis for patients with autism."

NCDHHS spokesperson Summer Tonizzo did not sugarcoat the impact that the cuts would have on services for Medicaid patients in her state. She said that services including hospice care, behavioral health long-term care, and nursing home services could see reimbursement cuts significantly steeper than 3%.

"These reductions may cause some providers to stop accepting Medicaid patients, as the lowered rates could make it financially unsustainable to continue offering care," she said.

The Tar Heel State isn't the only one reeling from Medicaid cuts, as Colorado Public Radio reported that the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which manages the state's Medicaid program, held a webinar this week in which it outlined plans to, in the words of department director Kim Bimestefer, "mitigate the loss of coverage and its catastrophic consequences to Coloradans, providers, and the economy."

This will be easier said than done, however, as Colorado Public Radio noted that numbers reviewed by the department estimate that "hundreds of thousands" of residents in the state could lose healthcare access thanks to cuts from the GOP budget package.

In addition to people who will lose coverage thanks to the work requirements passed in the legislation, an estimated 112,000 people who buy health insurance policies from state exchanges could lose them after the expected expiration of enhanced tax credits passed by Democrats during former President Joe Biden's term.

Taking a look at the broader nationwide picture, Stateline reported that even some Republicans attending the National Conference of State Legislatures summit in Boston this week expressed anxiety about the impact the cuts will have on the people whom they represent.

The publication quoted Oklahoma state Sen. John Haste, who said during the summit that he was particularly concerned about the impact the cuts would have on rural communities. Among other things, he pointed to a provision in the law that will deliver a $209 million cut in Medicaid funds to Oklahoma, as well as the fact that complying with work requirement verifications will cost an estimated $30 million.

"All of those things added together come up to a really big number," said Haste. "We don't know exactly what that is."

Hawaii Democratic state Sen. Ronald Kouchi said during the summit that the impact of the Medicaid cuts would be absolutely brutal, but added that the only thing Democrats can do for now is make sure their voters know whom to blame for what's happening.

"Who's going to be blamed when people are left out, when people are hungry and they lose out on educational opportunities?" he asked during a panel discussion. "If we as state legislators do not convey that it is a result of the decisionmakers in Washington, D.C., they will be at our doorstep as the place of last resort."