| New reporting from the Sacramento Bee details how hospitals are bracing for disaster after David Valadao voted for the GOP’s Big, Ugly Bill, which slashes Medicaid funding nationally by $1 trillion over the next decade. An estimated 1.6 million people in California will lose their health insurance over the next decade as a result.
Nearly half of rural hospitals in California are estimated to already operate at a loss. In communities across the Central Valley, Northern California, and the Inland Empire, more than half of patients rely on Medi-Cal — putting care, staffing, and critical investments at risk if these patients lose coverage. Meanwhile, Valadao represents the highest share of Medicaid recipients of any House Republican.
DCCC Spokesperson Anna Elsasser:
“David Valadao has done nothing to protect rural hospitals in the Valley from closing their doors. By voting for the Big, Ugly Bill, he chose to rip health care away from the people who need it most and put families, patients, and health care workers at risk. He is putting politics ahead of people’s lives — and that is unacceptable.”
Read more about the devastating impacts:
The Sacramento Bee: As Washington cuts back, California’s rural hospitals worry about their future
- “There are a lot of unknowns right now, so we’re obviously looking at things we can do to tighten our belts ahead of the potential changes” — Siri Nelson, president and CEO of Marshall Medical
- [For] California’s 67 rural hospitals…theirs is a nonstop struggle to maintain quality health care while balancing challenges unique to smaller, ethnically and economically diverse communities….Estimates [say] that nearly half of rural hospitals currently operate at a loss. Eventually, it becomes too much.
- Their biggest fear, supported by independent analysts such as [the] Congressional Budget Office, is that millions will lose their Medi-Cal benefits and become uninsured.
- “There will be more uninsured patients, but what it doesn’t mean is people won’t get sick…You’ll still have the cost of maintaining all the services you need, the staff, etc., but now you’re getting a reduction in how you’ll get reimbursed” – Peggy Wheeler, the California Hospital Association
- “If you run a hospital and you’re facing a significant reduction in your revenue, you can offer fewer services or you can employ fewer people…That leads to potential access problems, potential quality issues, job losses. And all those things can be magnified in rural areas, which are quite dependent on Medicaid funding.” – Kristof Streimikis, the California Health Care Foundation.
- Folks will be sicker and need care and present in emergency rooms with more complicated cases. That…is going to cost money.” – Streimikis
- “If you don’t have coverage, you’re not going to go get that mammogram…And the odds are you’re not going to get it caught soon enough to have a stage one or stage two cancer (diagnosis). You may be stage three or stage four, and we all know that outcomes are a lot worse when you’re caught at that late stage.” – Nelson
- [Nelson] also noted that rural patients must often go to larger cities for specialized treatment. If their local hospital closes or cuts services, they may have to travel further for even routine appointments or surgeries.
- “You have nowhere to stay when you get there,” she said. “What do you do? Sleep in your car while you’re waiting for your loved one to have their surgery? It’s really challenging.” – Nelson
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