Editorial
In the wake of the passage of “big, beautiful bill” and the rescission bill which clawed back funding for public media, some of our areas non-profits are facing a new landscape with their budgets going forward.
Among those possibly affected would be the Rockbridge Area Health Center, Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital, nursing homes and home health care agencies.
The new law will make changes to the federal Medicaid program, imposing work and requalification requirements beyond those currently in place. These will most likely lead to fewer people qualifying or being dropped because they can’t or don’t navigate the requirements. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the recently passed law will cut federal spending on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits by $1.02 trillion, due in part to eliminating at least 10.5 million people from the programs by 2034.
In general, rural hospitals and health care agencies operate on a tight margin. Losing revenue now being realized from Medicaid could tip some rural hospitals into the red. Carilion is a strong, well-run company, but it will certainly be affected by this loss. The $50 billion federal package to assist rural hospitals isn’t nearly enough to offset the losses that most qualifying hospitals will experience.
Likewise, Rockbridge Area Health Center will likely see a reduction in Medicaid patients. Federal grants that have brought affordable care to thousands of Rockbridge residents are not assured, either. Some grants were frozen earlier this year, but the grant process has resumed.
Medicaid expansion in Virginia allowed thousands to be able to access regular medical care. For those with chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and COPD, this was life-changing. It also helped hospitals, especially in rural areas that had previously provided treatment in the emergency room when people’s condition became so bad as to be life-threatening. Often the cost of that care had to be written off by the hospital because the patients couldn’t pay.
Nursing homes and home health agencies also serve many Medicaid patients. As qualification requirements change, those entities may find themselves with a smaller pool of clients. Across the board, there will be job losses because of these cuts.
Our public media outlets , radio stations WVTF and Radio IQ, WMRA and WNRN which broadcast into the county or which people access on the internet, and public TV stations WBRA and WVPT lost funding already appropriated through the rescission process last week. WVTF estimates that it will lose about 5 percent of its budget from the rescission, or about $300,000 a year.
The net effect of all of this is that these entities will be seeking more from the public. You’ll be seeing more appeals in your mailbox and email. Public media will look at generating more revenue from commercial underwriting – those ‘almost’ commercials on your public radio and television station. Healthcare agencies may have to downsize with fewer patients able to pay access Medicaid. You’ll likely see more annual giving fundraising by healthcare organizations to meet their budgets.
When local entities like our hospitals, clinic and home care agencies are weakened, local people suffer the consequences. When local news organizations are weakened, we get less local reporting on issues important to all of us. If your tax burden is being reduced by this big, beautiful bill, consider contributing some of that to the many non-profits that help our less fortunate local people.
