Valley Community Services Board and Augusta Health are bracing for substantial cuts to Medicaid and Medicare programs that could end healthcare coverage for millions of Americans over the next decade.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill overnight that could potentially cut more than $700 billion from Medicaid, $500 billion from Medicare and $367 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, over the next 10 years.
Every Democrat on the House floor voted against the bill, but it advanced by a 215-214 margin.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed by the MAGA-dominated House is now headed to the U.S. Senate, where legislators there will have to opportunity to pass the bill as it stands, or make changes, before the two bodies come together to agree on a final bill. The full House bill is more than 1,000 pages.
ICYMI
- ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ passes House: Trillions in cuts for Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps
- Republicans remove amendment to sell 500,000+ acres of federal public land
President Donald Trump told the Senate today “to get to work and send this bill to my desk as soon as possible.”
The U.S. Senate includes 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats.
“There is no time to waste,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Augusta Health: Bill ‘will result in diminished coverage’
Analysts believe that 8.6 million people could lose Medicaid, many for procedural reasons, as the federal government makes changes to make it harder for Americans keep coverage. The current bill also includes strict work reporting requirements and more frequent redetermination reviews.
The proposed cuts would likely disproportionately affect disabled and older people, according to experts.
“While Augusta Health understands the need for fiscal responsibility, we do not believe the path forward is cutting $715 billion from the Medicaid program, the very program that provides essential healthcare coverage to America’s most vulnerable population,” said Mary N. Mannix, FACHE, Augusta Health president and chief executive officer, in a statement to AFP.
Mannix said the hospital and its community-based board of directors are monitoring the bill closely so they can model the impact that the bill will have on the healthcare system and the community.
“This bill, as currently proposed, will result in diminished coverage and access to care for our vulnerable neighbors and shift a significant financial burden to those in need of care, the states and America’s hospitals,” she said.
Valley Community Services Board: ‘It’s not a pretty sight’
Valley Community Services Board provides community-based mental health, intellectual disability and substance abuse services to people in Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta and Highland counties.
Currently, 70 percent of their clients are on Medicaid and 50 percent of their revenue comes from Medicaid resulting in a roughly $6 million per year potential cut to its budget.
The reality is that less money would result in staff reductions, and CSBs would have to do a lot more with much, much less.
“When you’re talking about a community services board, our main expense is personnel,” said Kimberly K. McClanahan, Ph.D., executive director of the Staunton-based Valley Community Services Board. “So you’ve got $6 million that you cannot spend on getting the job done because you can’t afford the personnel to pay them.
“It’s not a pretty sight, if that [proposed Medicaid cuts] were to come to fruition.”
She said right now they are looking at a lot of hypotheticals and nearly all of them include laying off employees.
“We’re running a scenario of, even though it doesn’t feel like business as usual, you know what if these cuts don’t happen, this is our budget. If they do happen, we have backup budgets with a 20 percent decrease in it. Could be more, could be less …”
She said VCSB is being very transparent with its employees that they are going to do all they can to keep staff intact.
“For whatever reason, if that cannot happen in all instances, they will be given plenty of warning about that. We’re not going to wake up on a Friday and say, here’s your pink slip. We’re very, very attentive to what’s going on and trying to take care of the people that we have on staff, as well as the clients that we serve.”
Potential cuts: A ‘double whammy’ for CSBs
As people lose their health coverage, McClanahan said, more would likely come to community services boards across the state creating more demand and longer wait times for services. Without treatment, the outcome could result in more people with behavioral health and substance abuse issues landing in jail, in hospitals or on the streets.
“Community services boards, Valley and any others, any cuts will impact us at least twice. When people lose their Medicaid, if they happen to be going to a private provider, most private providers are not going to continue to see them when they no longer have a payer source, so those folks will be coming to the CSB because we are the safety net.
“So there will be people without a payer source, so the CSB will get a double whammy, essentially, from any cuts that do end up coming down the road to Medicaid.”
Community services board have already been hit with other federal cuts: monies were rescinded that were allocated toward what the government deemed as DEI initiatives. American Rescue Plan Act funding that wasn’t already spent was also rescinded.
When people think of community services boards, they often think of treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues. Valley Community Services Board’s team offers crisis intervention services, a mobile crisis response team, mental health and suicide prevention training for adults and youth, psychiatric medial services, therapy, deaf services, case management, homelessness assistance, school-based therapy, addiction treatment and an array of services for people who have developmental or intellectual disabilities including residential services, day support programs, early intervention for children, in-home services and case management.
Did people vote for this? ‘This is not okay’
Even some people who claim to be against “Obamacare” don’t understand that it is the Affordable Care Act.
“I think that people, in my personal opinion, voted for cheaper eggs and did not vote for their insurance to be taken away from them.”
McClanahan said she is reaching out to legislators and thinks the public should do the same.
“At the end of the day, I think that we all still vote for legislators and still have some power that perhaps we don’t believe we have.”
Peaceful protests are another possible way to let legislators know “this is not okay,” she said.
“When you have folks who apparently believe that human beings don’t deserve to have insurance, then it’s going to what do you have left? We can fill up the jails again. We can have more homeless. All those good things that happen when you don’t have resources to provide people the services they need.
“Personally, I don’t think that the majority of people that this was going to happen, and I do not think that people want their Medicaid taken away. I don’t think people want their insurance taken away,” McClanahan said.
“I think we must not give up the fight,” she said. “Everybody’s exhausted. I’m exhausted, but we’ve got to keep working to take care of the people we serve.
“Sometimes we humans don’t understand what the importance of something is until it affects us. When it’s my child or my service or my whatever, then all of the sudden, it’s important. But it’s important generally, because we are all human beings on this earth, and we deserve good care.
“We are watching the federal landscape very carefully and bracing for whatever comes,” McClanahan told AFP. “It’s our mission in life to do the best we can for the people we service, and we will continue to do that. That’s what community services boards do. We are the public safety net, and we always find a way to get it done.”
House response: ‘I voted no on this big bad billionaire bonus’
“Today House Republicans voted to pass One Big Ugly Bill that betrays the American people by funding tax cuts for the wealthiest few on the backs of the most vulnerable,” said Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) in a statement after the vote.
“Too many Americans find it harder to put food on the table, afford quality health care, and keep a roof over their heads. Instead of addressing those rising costs, House Republicans chose to nickel and dime our nation’s most vulnerable and gut the programs that millions of children, veterans, seniors and low-income communities rely upon to survive — all to make room in the budget for tax cuts for the wealthiest few in this country.
“Republicans have chosen to sell out their own constituents by approving massive cuts to Medicaid that will kick millions of hardworking people off their health insurance and take food out of the mouths of millions more — including hungry kids, seniors and veterans.
“Trump and House Republicans have made their priorities clear, putting the mega rich and special interests over the hardworking people who sent them to Washington.
“I voted no on this big bad billionaire bonus.”
Kaine, Warner united: ‘Virginians deserve better’
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have sounded the alarm on the effects that would strip health insurance and nutrition assistance away from more than 200,000 Virginians – all to give the richest 0.1 percent a $188,000 tax cut.
“This bill would do real harm to Virginia families, workers and communities. It would raise taxes on working families and rip health care away from more than 262,000 people in Virginia in order to give tax breaks to Donald Trump and his billionaire friends,” the legislators said in a joint statement.
“Virginians deserve better, and we will oppose this bill with everything we’ve got as it comes to the Senate. “
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Crystal Graham
