Concerns that President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will adversely impact community health centers have put advocates, activists and elected officials on guard.
Congressman Paul Tonko says Community health centers including Whitney Young in Albany "have been the backbone of the nation’s primary healthcare system."
Tonko moderated a panel discussion Wednesday at Whitney Young where officials, local providers and health care advocates shared their concerns that federal directives and trillions of dollars in impending cuts coming out of President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will put New Yorkers at risk by driving up health insurance costs.
"Cuts of this magnitude will hurt community health centers, because they serve as New York's primary care safety net, providing care to over 2.4 million patients," said Tonko. "That's one in eight New Yorkers. 62% of New York's CHC patients are enrolled in Medicaid, or in CHIP or duly enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. That's one in five Medicaid beneficiaries statewide. 47% of New York CHC funding comes from Medicaid, making the Medicaid the largest share of New York CHCs revenue from one source. In addition to the Medicaid cuts passed by Republicans in Congress in July of this year, the Trump administration also announced a new interpretation of Federal Regulations which would exclude undocumented immigrants from being eligible for certain federal public benefits. This reversed 27 years of precedent."
The Democrat points out that in New York State, community health centers serve 2.4 million low-income and uninsured patients each year – that's 1 in 8 New Yorkers.
Rose Duhan is President & CEO of Community Health Care Association of NYS. "We anticipate that statewide, as a result of the losses coverage, Medicaid coverage for patients, we anticipate that health centers, a conservative estimate, estimate, is that community health centers will lose $300 million worth of revenue a year in the coming year," said Duhan, who noted that current funding for community health centers expires at the end of September, which may result in health centers reducing staff, hours of operation and possibly closing school-based health centers that they operate.
NYS Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald says the state is squarely at odds with Washington. "We support community water fluoridation. We support vaccines, by the way, we also support health centers, and we're supporting healthcare workers. We do a lot to make sure people within healthcare, part of what I want to give the word contrast is we know what we're doing at the State Health Department. I'm worried the federal government doesn't know what they're doing, or worse, they do. And part of why I'm so blunt about this is I've actually read the 870 page reconciliation bill. Wasn't that I wanted to read it, just it's how I learned. If you go to the last section, which talks about immigration, it should bother everybody, that over $100 billion is invested in enforcement of this, and it should bother everybody what is happening in the country right now," McDonald said.
Tonko vows he'll keep up the fight to secure a strong future for community-based care.
