On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the reconciliation bill for the 2025 budget with a one-vote difference between those in support of the bill and those opposed to it. The American Hospital Association says this legislation is going to have notable impacts upon healthcare insurance and Medicaid.
Rick Pollack, the CEO and President of AHA, wrote to Congress on the eve of the House vote. In that statement, he expressed the association’s concerns about several provisions focused on the health insurance marketplace and Medicaid. He pointed out that the reductions to Medicaid funding are likely to have an adverse effect on not only Medicaid beneficiaries but also all patients in every community.
Some of the adverse effects of those provisions that Pollack singles out include hospitals, particularly those in underserved areas and rural areas, being compelled to make tough decisions to either scale down their services, lay off staff or even close shop. Emergency rooms are also likely to become more crowded, wait times prior to receiving care are bound to increase and investments in medical innovation and technology could significantly slow down, he added.
He stated that the bill’s provisions intended to eliminate waste will instead severely restrict the supplemental payment options and funding resources of states. Pollack says AHA firmly rejected those provisions since they threaten the long-established and critical healthcare financing programs that were designed to offset the chronic underpayments for Medicaid. He pointed out that the cuts will total approximately $700bn over a decade and that will switch millions of individuals to being uninsured yet they previously had healthcare coverage.
AHA also says those changes are abrupt and will throw the budgets of state governments into disarray, thereby compromising the ability of states to provide essential services to residents. Given that the law would take effect as soon as the President enacts it, there won’t be ample time for countermeasures to address the budgetary shocks that states will experience.
The association therefore urged lawmakers in the House to oppose those provisions geared at dismantling the critical programs under Medicaid.
Now that the House has approved the bill, it heads to the U.S. Senate. Some changes are likely to be made prior to calling a vote on the document. It remains to be seen how the operations of smaller health insurance firms like Astiva Health will be impacted by the changes to the federal government-run Medicaid system.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Astiva Health are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/Astiva
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