As the government shutdown enters its third week, New York State nurses are preparing for the potential fallout.
Beyond Medicaid cuts from the federal budget megabill, healthcare workers are concerned lawmakers won’t extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies passed under the Biden administration.
Hospitals statewide are at risk because these subsidies and programs help them remain open.
Redetha Abrahams-Nichols – chapter president of United University Professors, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University – said the hospital is worried about the future.
“We have this plan by 2030 to have a 150 single-bed facility in central Brooklyn, which is a big deal for that community, and care center,” said Abrahams-Nichols. “We don’t know what will happen. We build it, and then what, if we cannot get enough commercial insurance people in there to sustain the jobs?”
The hospital almost shut down due to rising costs and insufficient revenue to cover them. Since 90% of the hospital’s patients are on Medicaid, federal cuts have significantly impacted the amount of money the hospital is taking in.
But, Gov. Kathy Hochul provided them with a $1.1 billion to stay afloat and help develop the new facility. Abrahams-Nichols said she feels the hospital just won a battle, but it and others could lose the war.
New York State’s Department of Health estimates health care costs will increase by 38% for 140,000 people if the ACA subsidies aren’t extended.
Essential Plan funding, which provides healthcare for almost 2 million New Yorkers, could also be cut.
With lawmakers at an impasse on whether to extend the ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts, Registered Nurse Amy Lee Pacholk with Stony Brook University Hospital said it’s like waiting for a bomb to go off.
“We think the public at large doesn’t recognize what’s happening,” said Pacholk. “They’re in some sort of dystopia. Our expectation is in December, January, February, our hospitals are going to be overrun with people who can no longer afford the care they need in the outpatient setting.”
One way New York State could aid hospitals like Pacholk’s is to cover Disproportionate Share Hospital payments.
This program provides financial assistance to hospitals with a high number of low-income patients who might use Medicaid or be uninsured.
The Rockefeller Institute estimates DSH cuts could impact hospitals starting in 2027, to the tune of almost $1.5 billion.
Edwin is a reporter and producer in North Tonawanda, New York. He’s previously reported for the Niagara Gazette and the Ithaca Times. Edwin got an early start in radio interning for WBFO-88.7FM, NPR’s Buffalo affiliate. In 2018, he graduated from SUNY Buffalo State College with a B.A. in Journalism, and in 2022, graduated from Syracuse University with an M.S. in Communications.