Lawmakers want to cut $622 million from Medicaid

It’s a “money emergency” in the making for Florida hospitals.

State lawmakers in Tallahassee, under pressure to balance the budget, are now proposing punishing cuts to Medicaid that would take away as much as $622 million from hospitals next year.

What’s most in jeopardy are the most vulnerable population covered by Medicaid.

“So, in the state of Florida , children, medically complex children, the elderly, and the disabled are covered by Medicaid,” says Keri Eisenbeis with BayCare Health System

And it’s not just Medicaid patients who are affected, as the Bay Area’s population continues to grow, so does the demand and stress on local hospitals.

“If anything we need more resources to deal with these patients and facilities, which by the way in Tampa are really superb, excellent faculties but if we start cutting the legs out of the funding it will change and change quickly, ” says Dr. Thomas Bernasek with Florida Orthopaedic Institute.

Now hospitals worry the proposed budget cuts will have a lasting impact.

“If we reduce our support this year for the Medicaid program and we take it i the wrong direction we create a new baseline for where our state invest in Medicaid that could be to our detriment to our state down the road,” says Keri Eisenbeis with BayCare Health System

Story and video courtesy of WFTS ABC Action News. Copyright 2017 Scripps Media, Inc.

April 4, 2017