From SEIU Virginia State Council, Protect Our Care Virginia, and the Committee to Protect Health Care:
| Rep. McClellan and Sen. Hashmi Join Advocates in Highlighting How Recently-Passed Medicaid Cuts Threaten Rural Hospitals and Rural Health Care New KFF Analysis Shows Virginia’s Rural Health Care Will Suffer 3rd Biggest-Hit in the Nation |
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| U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) speaks to how the recently-passed Medicaid cuts will threaten rural hospitals at a July 10 press conference in Richmond. |
| Watch the full event HERE View photos from the event HERE RICHMOND, Va. — U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) and Chair of the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee Ghazala Hashmi on Thursday joined advocates, doctors, and impacted Virginians for a press conference discussing how the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history, signed into law July 4, will threaten rural hospitals and rural health care — all to fund tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the ultra-wealthy. The cuts put 338 rural hospitals, including at least six in Virginia, at risk. If rural hospitals are forced to close, seniors, children, people with disabilities, cancer patients, and people seeking help for substance use disorders will lose access to necessary care. According to new analysis from KFF, rural areas in Virginia stand to lose $6.8 billion in Medicaid spending over the next 10 years. Only North Carolina and Kentucky are projected to lose more. The ability to access local hospitals can mean the difference between life and death, and can save Virginians hours of travel to access critical care. People across the political spectrum want more access to health care, not less, but despite widespread opposition to the Medicaid cuts, Republicans have charged forward and passed their reckless budget bill into law, with area Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) casting a yes vote. Gov. Glenn Youngkin expressed his support for the bill, while Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears broke her silence this weekend to praise the bill for doing “so many great things.” “I want to make sure all Virginians, including the advocates here today, hear directly from me: I’m not giving up,” said Congresswoman McClellan. “I will keep fighting to right this wrong. I will continue to lift up the stories of my constituents and people across Virginia who are fighting to keep their health insurance. I will fight for our rural hospitals. I will fight for the communities that rely on them. I will fight for our free clinics that are also at risk because there is no way that the Virginia state government can be asked to fix this problem in addition to all the other costs that are being shifted to the state.” “Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos do not need our taxpayer support; this is simply welfare for the wealthy,” said Senator Hashmi. “The nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid will be felt all across the country and all across our commonwealth, but rural areas in particular will be hit hard and immediately … These costs [of uncompensated care] will likely be unsustainable for many of these hospitals, including the six that have already been designated as particularly at risk based on financial data that includes the disproportionate number of Medicaid patients that they serve. The real shame of the matter is that most of these hospitals are in districts that are represented by congressional Republicans who actually voted for these cuts, voted for these harms to their own constituents.” |
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| Chair of the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee Ghazala Hashmi |
| “How do the hospitals make up the deficit?” said Dr. Laurence Clark, an internist who has practiced for 34 years in Mount Vernon. “Are they going to cut the services? Are they going to cut the first things that usually get cut … the critical care units and the emergency room? Are we going to not just have some hospital close in our more rural areas? Are we going to have impaired hospitals going along? … The governor of Kentucky was very persuasive in something that he said: most of the facilities in the rural areas are the second largest employer group in the community. So first of all, think about being a small business owner in one of those communities. You got problems. Then number two, you’re getting displaced from that job, and yet the community itself is shrinking in its employer capacity. So essentially, we’re being set up in a lose-lose situation.” “Rural communities matter. Folks in Wise County, Emporia and the Eastern Shore deserve the same shot at recovery as anyone in Richmond or in Fairfax,” said SAARA of Virginia Executive Director Victor McKenzie. “Right now, more than 36,000 Virginians rely on Medicaid for medication assisted treatment, and expansion allowed an additional 46,000 people to receive addiction care back in 2019 alone. Slashing Medicaid would pull that progress out from under us, just as overdose rates are starting to calm. And right now, those overdoses still claim about 1,500 Virginians each year.” “The Republican budget proudly robs the middle class of their health care in order to pay for frivolous tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans,” said Freedom Virginia Co-Executive Director Ryan O’Toole. “At Freedom Virginia, we know that accessible and affordable medicine and health coverage are intrinsically linked to economic prosperity. We’re proud to stand here today alongside such determined legislators like Congresswoman McClellan and Senator Hashmi. While some of our elected officials, like Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, praise this devastating budget, we’re especially grateful for their commitment to fight for Virginians.” “The Medicaid taxi really helped my late husband, who had congestive heart failure that required him to get a heart transplant,” said LaChae Kelly-Taliaferro of Carrollton, who spoke to the transportation challenges that people in rural areas face in accessing health care. “He had to stop working due to his medical condition, so I was the sole breadwinner. That Medicaid taxi that took him to the doctor meant that I did not have to take off from work because we still had bills to pay and three children to support. It was so hard for my husband to get approved for Medicaid. It took a year, and I just can’t believe Republicans in Congress are adding even more barriers to people getting health care. These requirements are designed to throw people off their health care, including people in rural communities, like my family members. And it is so disappointing to see our Governor and Lieutenant Governor singing this Big Ugly Bill’s praises.” |
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| LaChae Kelly-Taliaferro of Carrollton spoke to the challenges of accessing health care from a rural area. |
| “You’re going to have the situation where if you’re in a car accident, in a place where there is no emergency room and no intensive care, you’re going to have to get a helicopter, and there aren’t that many of them around. And if it’s a multiple car accident, they’re gonna have to triage who goes first, and then you hope you get to the place that has the services,” explained Dr. Henry Rozycki, a recently-retired pediatrician and neonatologist from Richmond. “For NICU, which is what I do, babies are going to get transferred [if hospitals cut back on that service]. Mothers are going to still be at the hospital where they deliver if they have obstetrical services there. They’re going to have to drive hours or get an Airbnb to go take care of their children … ER’s are going to have long wait times. Most of us, I hope, have seen The Pitt, which is an amazing real-life description of what happens in an emergency room – a little bit dramatized, but overall, pretty real. So you’re sitting out there with your sick child waiting to get seen for eight hours because they’ve had to cut back.” “No one is crying wolf here: we’ve already seen a hospital in Nebraska make the decision to close a rural clinic in anticipation of these cuts,” said Katie Baker, Virginia state director for Protect Our Care. “Republicans in Congress – including those who represent rural areas – have failed us while state leaders like Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Earle-Sears are cheering them on. Between the Medicaid cuts and the Republicans’ refusal to renew the enhanced premium tax credits for people who buy their health insurance on the exchange, more than 300,000 Virginians stand to lose their health care, and they deserve to know that someone is fighting for them. We’re grateful for the tenacity of Democrats like Congresswoman McClellan and Senator Hashmi who are doing everything they can to protect our health care.” This event was co-sponsored by SEIU Virginia State Council, Protect Our Care Virginia, and the Committee to Protect Health Care. It is the first of a series of events across Virginia that will highlight how the Medicaid cuts will harm rural hospitals. |
