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By Julie Tatko, CEO, Family Health Care
Dear Editor,
At Family Health Care, we are deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to the Medicaid program. We are particularly concerned about our patients, 46 percent of whom receive their health insurance through Medicaid. Patients qualify for Medicaid coverage for various reasons, including being a child, in foster care, working at a minimum-wage job, employed in a job that doesn’t offer insurance, being disabled and unable to work, or being a student. People insured by Medicaid are our neighbors, and they deserve quality healthcare.
Our members of Congress have promised that there will be no cuts to the program, and people in need of Medicaid will continue to receive it. At the same time, they are expressing an openness to work requirements. Based on experiences in other states that have work requirements, we are concerned for our patients that our legislators are considering this strategy.
Work requirements are problematic for several reasons. First, most people who are insured through Medicaid are either working or are unable to work due to disability, caretaking responsibilities, significant illnesses, or pregnancy. Excluding those who are unable to work, 92 percent of Medicaid enrollees are already employed.
Second, work requirements fail to keep people insured and create additional expenses for states. Work requirements were voluntarily implemented in Arkansas, New Hampshire, and Georgia. In each of these cases, they were highly successful in driving up the costs to states for implementation and pushing people out of Medicaid, leaving them uninsured and without access to healthcare. Additionally, work requirements impose significant paperwork burdens on patients themselves.
Lastly, if there are significant reductions in Medicaid expenditures, it means people will lose coverage. The House of Representatives is currently pushing for $880 billion in spending cuts through the committee that oversees Medicaid and Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office has stated that the only way to achieve those kinds of savings from the budget is by making significant cuts to Medicaid.
You can call it whatever you want, but work requirements are cuts to the Medicaid program. A cut by any other name is still a cut.
Family Health Care serves approximately 23,000 unduplicated patients annually at clinics located in Baldwin, Big Rapids, Cadillac, Evart, Grant, McBain, Reed City, and White Cloud. The clinics offer access to affordable medical, dental, behavioral health, vision, laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy services.
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