Call To Action
We must begin now to convince Virginia legislators to protect hospitals, nursing homes, and health systems from severe Medicaid cuts. Policymakers are hearing from all sectors of the state budget. Cuts to Medicaid affect our ability to provide Virginians access to quality health care and may result in a decrease in vital services available as well as hospital layoffs and closures.
Governor Tim Kaine has proposed a budget that cuts Medicaid inpatient reimbursements from 75 cents to 70 cents per dollar of cost. Hospitals are already on a shoestring budget and can’t afford smaller reimbursements as the number of Medicaid patients increases due to layoffs in other job markets.
For the past several years, any time the state government has needed to cut costs, health care has been on the chopping block. After significant cuts last year, including taking Medicaid inpatient rates from 78 to 75 percent of cost, the Commonwealth’s dire budget situation leaves Medicaid funding at great risk again. The Governor’s budget proposal would reduce that to 70 percent of cost.
Medicaid is one of the few state programs that receives matching payments from the federal government. Cuts cost health care $83 million but only save the Commonwealth $41.5 million. Proposed nursing home cuts cost health care in Virginia an additional $28 million (for a total of $111 million).
As bad as these cuts sound, they would be much worse without the Governor’s proposed tobacco tax! The Governor’s tobacco tax increase is dedicated to offset greater Medicaid cuts. Legislators may soon propose even deeper cuts to Medicaid and they need to hear our opposition.
Many members of the General Assembly have already said that the tobacco tax is dead on arrival and cuts will have to be even deeper than those the Governor proposed.
We need the tobacco tax to pass or we risk an even bleaker future. An additional 30 cents per pack is a small price to pay to protect access to quality health care for Virginians.
Hard times call for sacrifices by all; we must expect some cuts. The Governor’s proposal will create hardships for hospitals and health systems, especially when Medicaid rolls grow as a result of a weak economy. We must ask legislators to do better than the Governor’s cuts, and certainly no worse.
Policymakers must do everything possible to ensure cuts are spread appropriately across education, transportation, public safety, and all budget areas and that cuts to Medicaid, where every dollar saved to the state costs another dollar in federal matching funds, be mitigated.
Every activist in Virginia is working hard to make sure that their industries are safe from budget cuts. It is crucial that you ask your legislators to minimize cuts in Medicaid to the greatest extent possible.
The voice of the health care community must be heard above the others. Log in to (or sign up for) VoterVoice now and send your legislators the message that Medicaid needs to be protected in the budget.
