WATCH: Pennsylvania Health Care Leaders Voice Concerns About Devastating Impacts of Proposed Federal Medicaid Cuts in Congressional Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill

Harrisburg, PA – Proposed Medicaid cuts in Congressional Republicans’ budget bill would have devastating impacts on Pennsylvania’s health care system. Proposed changes to Medicaid could strip health coverage from more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians, drive up health care costs, and put dozens of rural hospitals out of business. 

Pennsylvania cannot backfill or absorb these additional costs, as the Medicaid cuts create an unprecedented and unfunded increase in administrative burden that will strain existing operations and divert resources from delivering services to Pennsylvanians. 

Click here to watch Wayne Memorial Health System CEO Jim Pettinato,  click here to watch President and CEO of The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania Nicole Stallings, and click here to watch Endless Mountains Health System CEO Loren Stone discuss the negative impacts the proposed Medicaid cuts would have on rural health care providers and their patients.

Wayne Memorial Health System CEO Jim Pettinato

“It’s really the patients that are definitely going to be the ones impacted. Those patients, again, they’re a vulnerable population. They live in a rural community.

“Transportation, for example, in most of these areas, is very difficult.

“If they can’t receive that preventative care and they’re not monitored by their primary care [provider] and get the diagnostic testing they need, there’s going to be an immediate impact on their health over the long haul.

“And again, not only shorten their life span, but also really put a significant stress on the health care system from a reimbursement perspective.”

The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania President and CEO Nicole Stallings

“People will lose coverage.

“Individuals will no longer be able to access care in the same ways.

“We know that you often come to receive care in hospitals later when you’re sicker, [when] you haven’t had that preventative care. We are going to see individuals who are sicker, and communities that are less healthy.

“This will also have an impact on economies and jobs.

“I think it is important to note that the changes that are being proposed don’t just impact Medicaid beneficiaries, but really all individuals in our communities.”  

Endless Mountains Health System CEO Loren Stone

“So, the impact on rural hospitals would be that more and more of the cost of care would not be covered through a federal-state sponsored program, such as Medicaid.

“Right now, approximately 18 percent of all of our patients at Endless Mountains Health System are covered either through Medicaid, Medicaid Advantage, or a Medicaid-Medicare program.” 

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