Local hospitals are still digesting the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the GOP’s Affordable Care Act overhaul. The CBO estimates funding for Medicaid under the new health care plan will go down by $880 billion between 2017 and 2026. The cuts could deeply impact the MetroHealth System, Cuyahoga County's public hospital.
Medicaid covers costs for roughly half the patients using the MetroHealth System. Tracy Carter, the hospital’s senior director of government relations, says less money could determine the future of its free health screenings and workshops like childbirth preparation and smoking cessation.
“Right now we have a very strong community benefit program, that helps the patients with community education and wellness. We would have to take a second look at those services and see what we could keep or not keep,” she says.
More than 700-thousand low-income Ohioans gained health insurance as a result of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. According, to the CBO, the replacement plan will reduce Medicaid enrollment in the U.S. by 14 million people.