Source: KKTV
According to the Colorado Hospitals Association, federal Medicaid cuts could lead to billions lost in funding for hospitals around the state.
“We fear that the one big beautiful bill act will have severe and lasting consequences on Colorado’s healthcare system, and really across the entire country. These are significant cuts. It was not a scalpel used to cut some waste, fraud, and abuse. They really swung a sword at our healthcare system,” said Cara Welch, with the Colorado Hospitals Association.
Officials say 45.8% of rural hospitals rely on Medicare and Medicare payers. They say many of them are considering changes to their staffing or may even have to close.
Welch said, “Our rural communities are much more dependent on what we call government payers…So when we make dramatic cuts to those programs, it hurts our rural communities more than it does even in the urban areas.”
With the passing of the new federal budget bill, aside from the cuts, it also added a supplementary fund for hospitals across the country.
“The Senate added a rural stabilization fund or rural provider fund, I believe it’s $50 billion allocated across all of the states across five years. How much that will mean for Colorado is still very much to be determined,” said Welch.
In a statement from Representative Jeff Crank, he said:
“The OBBB preserves the Medicaid system for the most vulnerable and those that truly need it; benefits for pregnant women, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities would see no changes with their Medicaid plans. The bill does put in place commonsense work requirements for able-bodied individuals who apply for coverage through Medicaid—it’s perfectly reasonable to ask for some basic accountability in return.”
