“The only reason they [cut healthcare funding] was to pass along tax cuts for their billionaire and corporate friends,” Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said during a press conference introducing the Protect Our Care report. “And the first impact of that is that people lose coverage,”
The Protect Our Care report, which includes an interactive website, tells a disturbing story.
Ninety-two percent of hospital executives expect Medicaid cuts to significantly affect their financial operations, according to the report. At least 14 hospitals have closed across 13 states and more than 400 hospitals are at risk of closing or cutting staff. Over 360 clinics have closed and more than 30 nursing homes have shut their doors.
Facilities close “when fewer people have insurance, and when [payments] are lowered,” Murphy said. Community hospitals, nursing homes and maternity wards, he said, “are closing at an alarming rate, and that’s the consequence of the decision that Republicans made.”
When the bill was up for debate last year, it was estimated that 15 million Americans — including seniors, children, and people with disabilities — could lose healthcare coverage. Just a year later nearly four million individuals have already lost it.
A Crisis for Black Americans
The vulnerable care facilities tend to disproportionately serve Black and low-income residents than other hospitals. Nearly 20% of the at-risk hospitals identified in a report from Public Citizen serve high-poverty areas and 60% of them serve urban areas. Another 176 (39%) are rural hospitals.
Black Americans already face higher uninsured rates, with around 9% lacking coverage compared to roughly 5% of whites, according to the research firm KFF. They also make up about 21% of Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and are far more likely than their white counterparts to rely on government-subsidized healthcare.
In April, civil rights and health equity advocates declared a “Health Equity Emergency” warning that the law is actively stripping health coverage from low-income Black communities at an alarming rate.
Dr. Oni Blackstock, a prominent health equity physician, noted that the new policies increase the amount of red tape, such as work and reapplication requirements, making the system difficult to navigate.
The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, estimated that the end of ACA tax credits alone would cause more than 170,000 Black adults in just 10 major metropolitan areas to lose health insurance, with the largest losses concentrated in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and Miami.