U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine today issued the following statement slamming congressional Republicans’ bill that would devastate rural communities across Virginia by gutting Medicaid and accelerating hospital closures.
“The big GOP plan is a direct threat to families in rural Virginia who rely on Medicaid to access care and keep their community hospitals open. This bill would strip health care from thousands of Virginians, gut funding for struggling rural hospitals, and undo decades of progress. Almost forty percent of kids in rural Virginia are covered by Medicaid. Without that lifeline, families would face impossible choices, and many local hospitals wouldn’t survive. For rural Virginia, this bill might mean the difference between a hospital that’s five minutes away and one that’s 50. It is a slap in the face to the health care workers, parents and local leaders doing everything they can to keep their communities afloat. We refuse to stand by while Republicans gamble with Virginians’ lives.”
Small towns and rural areas in Virginia have the highest rates of Medicaid coverage.
According to research by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families:
- 37.9 percent of children in Virginia’s small towns and rural areas rely on Medicaid/CHIP for their coverage, compared to 30 percent in metro/urban areas.
- Among Virginia adults younger than 65, 18.9 percent of those in small towns and rural areas get their coverage through Medicaid/CHIP, compared to 13.7 percent in metro areas.
- Among seniors, 11.7 percent of those living in Virginia’s small towns and rural areas were covered by Medicaid, compared to 10.7 percent in metro/urban areas.
Nearly half, or 47 percent, of rural births in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid, as are 65 percent of nursing home residents in rural counties.
Almost half of rural hospitals nationwide are already operating at a financial loss, according to the American Hospital Association. The GOP’s proposed Medicaid cuts would push already-struggling rural hospitals further toward financial collapse, particularly in areas like Southwest and Southside Virginia. Detailed data from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill concluded that Republican health care cuts could place more than 300 rural hospitals across the U.S., including six hospitals in Southwest and Southside Virginia, at disproportionate risk of closure, conversion or service reductions.
Since the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid in Virginia, the uninsured rate has fallen dramatically, and rural hospitals have seen a critical infusion of funds to help keep their doors open. The GOP’s plan to give giant tax cuts to the ultra wealthy while slashing Medicaid and other investments threatens to reverse that trend.
Warner and Kaine have long championed Medicaid expansion and rural health infrastructure, including broadband-enabled telehealth services and rural hospital stabilization programs. They have pledged to fight the GOP plan as long as Republicans in Congress continue to insist on gutting vital programs in order to pay for tax breaks for the richest Americans, noting that the GOP bill would strip health insurance from more than 302,000 Virginians, cut SNAP benefits, raise energy costs for Virginia households, jeopardize more than 20,000 Virginia jobs, raise taxes on minimum wage workers while giving the richest 0.1 percent a $188,000 tax cut, make tax filing more expensive and explode the deficit, among other devastating impacts to Virginia families.
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Rebecca Barnabi
