Elected officials in Massachusetts are warning that cuts approved by the U.S. House last week could cost 250,000 Bay Staters their health insurance and tear a hole in the fabric of the state’s broader health care system.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey joined Gov. Maura Healey, other state officials and health care leaders at Cambridge Health Alliance’s Revere care center Tuesday to push back against the Republican-backed budget bill that would pay for tax cuts in part by reducing spending on Medicaid.
Healey’s office said that Massachusetts would lose $1.75 billion in federal funding under the bill for its Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, and for the Massachusetts Health Connector insurance marketplace.
Beyond the direct loss of coverage, Healey said there would be ripple effects that drive up the cost of care.
“A quarter of a million people losing coverage, where are they gonna go? Some will end up in the street. Many will end in emergency rooms. Who do you think pays for it when people end up in emergency rooms?” she said. “Hospitals can’t absorb that. Insurance companies can’t absorb that. We’re going to all be absorbing that. Businesses here, residents here, people are going to see their premiums go up. People are going to see a whole lot of harm.”
Healey and others said nursing homes, hospitals and community health centers that rely on Medicaid reimbursements could be forced to lay off providers or close altogether if the cuts go through.
“When they close, they don’t just close for Medicaid patients — they close for everybody,” Warren said. “So anybody who’s feeling chest pains and needs emergency medical care right now is just out of luck. Anyone whose kid falls at the playground and needs what looks like 126 stitches is just out of luck. Anyone who’s looking to deliver a baby is just out of luck.”
MassHealth supports nearly half of children in Massachusetts, almost three-quarters of nursing home residents and more than half of people with disabilities, state health officials said. It’s also the single largest account in the state budget, and a loss of federal dollars could drive Beacon Hill budget-writers to consider cuts elsewhere to try to plug some of the gap.
“When they close, they don’t just close for Medicaid patients — they close for everybody.”Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on potential ramifications of hospital and nursing homes’ lost revenue
The legislation still needs to pass the U.S. Senate. Though Republicans have a majority in the Senate, the two Democratic senators from Massachusetts said they’d work to fight the bill, slow down its progress and put Republicans on the record in support of Medicaid cuts.
“We’re not going to back down,” Markey said. “And I think, ultimately, Republicans are going to see that they’re going to proceed at their own political peril.”
Warren said there is “a lot of pushback in the Senate” against the bill.
