Local Democrats to honor John Lewis, whose advice was to ‘get into good trouble’

Democrats in Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro will mark the fifth anniversary of the passing of civil-rights icon John Lewis by following his advice to “get into good trouble.”

Two events are scheduled for Thursday, July 17, that involve Lewis’s brand of “good trouble” – a rally outside Augusta Health in Fishersville beginning at 8:30 a.m. to protest cuts to Medicaid in the Big Ugly Bill that are threatening rural hospitals, and a silent march on the Main Street bridge in Waynesboro beginning at 6 p.m. to evoke memories of the 1965 Selma marches advocating for the expansion of voting rights.

One or the other should fit your schedule; and both are important, considering the stakes.

We’re just plain lucky that Augusta Health isn’t on the list of six rural Virginia hospitals on the brink of closure due to the Medicaid cuts, which are taking more than a trillion – that’s trillion, with a t– – from public healthcare spending.

That said, we can expect some financial pressure on Augusta Health that might lead to cuts in services.

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ICYMI

• Augusta Health on the brink? Hospital makes plea to save Medicaid

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The PR folks at the local hospital tried to sound the alarm before the final passage of the Big Ugly Bill a couple of weeks ago, saying the cuts “will disproportionately impact rural and medically underserved communities, such as ours, and drastically increase uncompensated care for hospitals, like Augusta Health.”

After the bill passed, the hospital took the Facebook post sounding the alarm down.

Guess they didn’t like all the negative comments from the MAGAs who said they were making it all up, about how bad things might get.

The acronym FAFO would seem to apply here.

Twenty-eight percent of Augusta Health’s patients have their healthcare costs covered by Medicaid – that’s well above the national average of Medicaid patients for a hospital, which is 16.7 percent.

Uncomfortable reality to share here: our local economy is lagging way behind the national average, meaning, we have more poor people, and thus, more people who are on Medicaid.

The problem with that for Augusta Health is, even before the cuts the MAGAs enacted so that they can give rich people a tax break, Medicaid wasn’t exactly paying its bills.

Augusta Health, with annual revenues at $469 million in 2023, according to its IRS filing for that year, reported a $6.7 million shortfall in reimbursements from Medicaid.

On top of that, the hospital reported providing $9.1 million in financial assistance to patients, in essence, free healthcare.

The deep Medicaid cuts being advanced by MAGA Republicans, like our own Ben Cline, the Sixth District congressman, who was a guest of honor on the Augusta Health campus back in March, will only add to the costs that the hospital will have to eat while also trying to balance its books.

Maybe instead of posing for selfies, the folks there at Augusta Health could have better used their time trying to convince Cline to actually represent the interests of his constituents for once.

Maybe getting together a few folks with signs across from the entrance to the hospital for an hour or so this coming Thursday can push the people in the flood of cars going in and out to think about what they voted for last year – and if cuts to services at our local hospital is what they really wanted.

It might be hard to remain silent on the silent march Thursday evening in Downtown Waynesboro.

We’ve all had it up to wherever with the healthcare and SNAP cuts, ICE disappearing people, Trump’s stooges acting like people asking questions are communists, the rest.

I’ve been wanting to see a local march, though, so, I’ll see if I can keep piped down.