As Democratic lawmakers continue to sound the alarm over the potential fallout from the GOP’s spending cuts, New York Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced new legislation that would reverse cuts to Medicaid and bolster rural hospitals.
Schumer was joined by Congressman Paul Tonko, State Assemblywoman Pat Fahy, and Amsterdam Mayor Michael Cinquanti, all Democrats, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam Thursday? to announce the “Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act.”
Schumer says St. Mary’s is one of more than 300 hospitals in immediate risk of Medicaid cuts – the Montgomery County health care provider receives $40 million annually in revenue from 35,000 patients on Medicaid, 28% of its yearly income.
“You know you can say, ‘well it’s Medicaid, maybe it doesn’t effect me and it just effects poor people.’ No, more than a third of Medicaid effects middle-class people. If you’re a worker and you have a parent who’s in a nursing home or an assisted living facility, that could close. They depend on even more, a higher percentage of their money from Medicaid. What are you going to do? Let’s say you don’t have room in your house, even if you do, you’re not going to be able to provide the kind of medical care that they’d be able to do. So, it impacts almost everybody,” said Schumer.
Schumer’s new bill would reverse the cuts to Medicaid in the Republican spending plan and permanently extend premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act set to expire at the end of this year.
The end of the ACA’s tax credits, Schumer says, could lead to a 49% increase in monthly healthcare costs - $270 - for the average couple in the Mohawk Valley.
Paul Tonko, whose congressional district encompasses a portion of the Mohawk Valley, said federal healthcare cuts could have catastrophic ripple effects.
“Over 330 hospitals are at immediate risk of closing or scaling back their services and more than 750 hospitals are at risk in years to come. People have asked ‘what do these Medicaid cuts mean for people in the Capital Region and the Mohawk Valley?’ Well, as hospitals are forced to make these tough decisions it would mean traveling for maternity or specialty care. As hospitals close people will be forced to travel further. As rural New Yorkers we know what that means. For the remaining hospitals in the surrounding areas, they will be more crowded, they will be taking on that overflow with fewer resources,” said Tonko.
For their part, Congressional Republicans say the work requirements included in the Big Beautiful bill are meant to cut down on what they see as wasteful Medicaid spending.
