Three Northeast Ohio hospitals say they oppose the Senate's health care bill introduced by Republicans last week.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that 22 million people will lose coverage if the bill rolling back the Affordable Care Act passes. Cliff Deveny, interim CEO of Summa Health in Akron, says Obamacare helped 45,000 people in the Akron area get coverage.
"What we want to see is that they continue to access physician offices, get preventative care and improve their situation," he said, "and not push them back to a situation where they’re getting their care in the emergency room."
In a statement Cleveland's University Hospitals criticized the bill’s cuts to Medicaid. It says the cuts would put “low income children, parents, pregnant women, the disabled, and older Ohioans at risk for losing coverage and services.”
The Senate bill would phase out the Medicaid expansion provision of the ACA, which covers more than 700,000 Ohioans.
Cleveland's MetroHealth also opposes the bill. Tracy Carter, who directs federal government relations for the hospital, said it has served roughly 30,000 people who got coverage under the expansion provision. She said she's concerned about what will happen to that group if the bill passes.
"That population will lose coverage and be in a place where they have additional stress trying to contemplate how they will continue to access primary care and other vital health services," she said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants the Senate to vote on the bill this week.