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With potentially deep cuts to Medicaid on the horizon, local hospital leaders and health advocates in New York warn that funding reductions could significantly destabilize the city’s network of safety-net hospitals and community health centers.
In Congress, House Republicans are seeking $880 billion in budget cuts over the next decade, and some Republicans have claimed that Medicaid won’t be targeted. But many Democrats insist that the cuts won’t be possible without slashing the federal program, which provides health care coverage to more than 72 million Americans who are low-income or disabled.
“These cuts are not just dollar figures,” U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, a Democrat, said during a rally outside The Brooklyn Hospital Center on Tuesday. “For so many Americans, Medicaid means the difference between life and death. Medicaid keeps our state healthy. It keeps our hospitals open. It ensures our children can see a doctor when they get sick.”
In Velázquez’s district, which spans parts of Brooklyn and Queens, nearly half of residents rely on Medicaid, she noted. Behind her, a wall of nurses and local residents — many holding signs that read “Some cuts don’t heal” and “Hands off my Medicaid”— gathered in support of the program, which serves about 4 million New York City residents.
The leaders of local hospitals and community health centers said that any cuts to Medicaid could mean significant reductions to their services and staff, harming the vulnerable populations they serve.
Gary Terrinoni, the president and chief executive of The Brooklyn Hospital Center, which borders Fort Greene Park in Downtown Brooklyn, said Medicaid reimbursements already fall short of covering the community hospital’s expenses. Cutting Medicaid would force hospitals like his to lay off staff, he said.
“Safety-net hospitals will have to face the tough decision to reduce services or close, leaving countless patients without access to critical care,” he said.
Philip Onorato, the chief executive officer of Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center, noted that his Downtown Brooklyn community health center relies heavily on federal grants and Medicaid reimbursements, and any reduction to Medicaid would “severely impact our ability to sustain operations.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Mitchell Katz, the president and chief executive of NYC Health + Hospitals, raised a similar alarm. He warned members of the New York City Council that any cuts to Medicaid could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in lost funding for the city’s health care system, leading to service reductions and job losses.
Medicaid reductions would impact the full spectrum of the city’s public health workforce, from community health workers to those who help residents enroll in SNAP, the federal food assistance program, said Veronica Smith, the senior director of health policy and government affairs at Public Health Solutions, a major local nonprofit. Those effects, Smith said, would harm the New Yorkers they serve.
“The well-being of Medicaid members — most of whom are working families, seniors, and folks with disabilities and children — hang in the balance,” she said.
Medicaid made all the difference in Stefan Henry’s life.
At the rally, Henry, a wheelchair user, described how Medicaid-funded home health aides were critical in helping him earn an engineering degree from the City College of New York. Today, Henry is the chief executive of Level the Curve, a company that makes adaptive tools for people with disabilities.
“I would not be here, alive and functioning and talking to any of you, if it wasn’t for Medicaid,” he said.
Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org.
