Montana health care advocates rally to save rural hospitals
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Montana health care advocates are using the Affordable Care Act's 16th anniversary to spotlight potential Medicaid cuts.
Advocates held a "Save Our Hospitals" rally at Saint Patrick Hospital in Missoula last week to protest the cuts and urge state lawmakers to protect rural hospitals.
Chet Phillips, a single dad of three kids on Medicaid, gets benefits through Montana's Medicaid expansion. He wants lawmakers to protect those funds, especially after a recent health scare.
"Without expanded Medicaid, I'd have had to worry about whether I could afford the care I needed to stay in this world and take care of the people who depend on me," Phillips explained.
Advocates said two recent proposals could affect the state's Medicaid funding and hurt rural hospitals. The first is Montana's plan to enforce federal Medicaid work requirements in Montana this summer, which they said would be costly and cut benefits for tens of thousands of Montanans.
The second is the state health department's announcement it may not pay the 3 percent Medicaid provider rate increase the legislature passed last year. The health department is predicting a $34 million budget shortfall this year and said it's considering all options to avoid service reductions and provider payment cuts.
Trent Bolger, executive director of the nonprofit Big Sky 55+, said the bipartisan legislation to raise Medicaid provider payments was meant to keep smaller rural providers in business.
"In Montana, it used to be a handshake's as good as a contract," Bolger recounted. "This is worse. They're going back on a law."
A new analysis from the Center for Quality Healthcare and Payment Reform showed 30 percent of Montana's rural hospitals are at risk of closure, with three in immediate danger.
Representative SJ Howell, D-Missoula, urged people to take action.
"We can make a difference," Howell emphasized. "We can stand up for hospitals big and small and the access to health care that we all need and deserve. And we just have to do it."
