By Nadia Ramlagan
Nearly one-third of Medicaid funding could be on the chopping block as lawmakers look for ways to reduce the national deficit.
A new report found the proposed changes, $2.5 trillion, are more likely to harm rural communities and small towns than metro areas. More than half a million Mountain State residents rely on Medicaid for health coverage.
Ellen Allen, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Healthcare, said Medicaid is a lifeline for providers and the state’s senior population.
“Families depend upon it to avoid excessive medical debt to help people who are in skilled nursing homes,” Allen pointed out. “I think it’s 72% of West Virginians living in skilled nursing facilities are paid for through Medicaid.”
Medical debt could also rise in the Mountain State. One National Institutes of Health study found ZIP codes with the lowest incomes in states that did not expand Medicaid had the highest levels of medical debt in the nation.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said policymakers need to realize programs such as Medicaid are not government waste because they keep folks healthy enough to work and create better health outcomes for kids.
“In the long term, it’s a much better investment of taxpayer dollars,” Alker contended. “Because it’ll pay dividends to make sure that these families are getting the care they need.”
Allen added many counties already lack a medical facility to deliver birth and argued cutting Medicaid would have a devastating effect on maternal care.
“Well over 20 in West Virginia do not have a hospital with delivery where you can have your child,” Allen observed. “That’s because it’s a high-cost service to provide. You have to have specialists.”
Over the past decade, 120 rural hospitals across the country have either closed or stopped offering inpatient services. According to the report, West Virginia ranks among a handful of states with the highest percentage of working-age adults who rely on Medicaid for health coverage.