Nearly one in three residents in New York’s 21st Congressional District rely on Medicaid, making it a crucial part of the healthcare system
By Tim Rowland
Nearly one in three people in the North Country are direct beneficiaries of Medicaid, but even that doesn’t cover the extent to which communities depend on the 59-year-old government health program.
Should Medicaid be scaled back, clinics and nursing homes that depend on government reimbursements for the care they provide to financially disadvantaged people would suffer, possibly to the point of extinction, said Dr. John Rugge, founder of the Hudson Headquarters Health Network. If these institutions are lost, he said, the Adirondacks will become a health care desert where, for example, a young woman going into labor would face hours of drive time getting to a city hospital.
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“In this North Country region, almost everything, every part of the health delivery system, is in danger — in danger of either having services contracted or sometimes just failing and disappearing,” he said.
To that end, Rugge and other physicians and community leaders have formed the Healthcare Coalition for the North Country, a nonpartisan advocacy group designed to protect Medicaid and the people who depend on it. The coalition, which was formally announced at duel press conferences in Albany and Lake George Wednesday, has already attracted 170 members, with many more expressing interest.
“What we’re concerned about is creating awareness on a nonpartisan basis of what the implications are of change, and what the role of Medicaid is for all of us,” Rugge said.
Although the situation is fluid, House Republicans are searching for $880 billion to help pay for tax cuts proposed by President Donald Trump. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget office estimates cuts, as most recently proposed, would cost 8.7 million people coverage over 10 years.
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“A great deal is at stake for local hospitals, nursing homes, and medical practices—in fact, the whole healthcare system—if there are quick, careless cuts to Medicaid,” the coalition wrote in announcing the press conferences.
Along with caring for lower-income people, Medicaid also provides nutrition and health care for children and covers 60% of nursing home residents. The coalition said Medicaid supports 215,000 of the 772,000 residents in New York’s 21st Congressional District. Under GOP budget plans, 55,000 of those residents would lose coverage. Many others are likely to receive substandard care at an ultimately higher cost. “(Patients) will delay care, be sicker when they do seek care, use emergency rooms more frequently, and be hospitalized more frequently and be more likely to die,” coalition founders wrote. “They will have unpaid medical bills and be more likely to go into bankruptcy.”
Rugge, who founded Hudson Headwaters in 1974 to combat the shortage of rural care, said the nonpartisan HCNC is not looking for political scraps, and acknowledges there are parts of Medicaid — and American health care in general — that need work.
But he hopes lawmakers will not cut blindly without considering the consequences. This message has resonated with the grass-roots recruitment the coalition has taken to date. “So one of the most astonishing things to me was just coming across people in the line to the movies, in the shopping center, at the grocery store, and hearing how many people were saying, ‘Oh, Medicaid, yeah, that is so important to us in this community,” he said.
Medicaid cuts could seriously impact the economy as well, Rugge said, where healthcare is one of the top employers. According to the state Department of Labor, more than 18,000 people work in the industry in the North County. Between 3,200 and 5,200 of these jobs could be lost if health care facilities are no longer viable, according to the Medicaid coalition.
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Beyond that, businesses will not want to locate in an area with a paucity of health care and even second-homeowners, especially those who are older, might have second thoughts about making the Adirondacks a destination, Rugge said. Medicaid itself is complicated, and neither it nor the effects of wholesale cuts are easily understood.
If changes to Medicaid are made, “it can’t be with a big sweep of the hand,” he said.”It has to be carefully designed and in keeping fiscal responsibility, patient responsibility, caregiving and all the rest —we need to be very, very careful so no harm is done to individual people, the economy and healthcare as a whole.”
HCNC will spread its message by making presentations for public officials, the news media and other interested parties, as well as collecting patient stories to help show the need for Medicaid both with data but also through human experience.
Those wishing to join the coalition can visit https://www.northcountrymedicaid.org/join-us
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Photo at top: The Healthcare Coalition of the North Country, led by Dr. John Rugge, founder of Hudson Headwaters, discuss potential Medicaid cuts and how they would affect the North Country in a press conference Wednesday at the state capitol. Photo by Lori VanBuren, Times Union
Where is our Rep. Elise Stefanik? What is she doing to address these likely Medicaid cuts that will hurt her own constituents? Or will she just ignore the damage that will likely result as she parrots Republican talking points?
According to a poll by KFF from March, 42 percent of adults want Congress to increase Medicaid funding, and 40 percent want the funding to remain the same. What’s interesting is that 22 percent of Trump voters want Medicaid funding increased, and 43 percent want the funding to remain the same.
That’s pretty strong bipartisan support for the Medicaid program,
She will do whatever she thinks her president wants her to do; she is not in this game to serve her constituents. That said, there is apparently an overabundance of MAGA voters in her district who consistently vote against their own best interests, so I don’t think she feels the need to consider their best interests when they don’t.