RICHMOND — Health care for one out of 10 Virginians — many of them children — would become less accessible under proposed state budget cuts, the Medical Society of Virginia said Tuesday.
Virginia ranks 48th in the nation in Medicaid spending, said Dr. Daniel Carey, of Lynchburg, the society’s president.
“We are not down to cutting fat here. We are cutting bone and muscle from this program that is incredibly important to 780,000 people,” about one-tenth of the state’s population, who depend on Medicaid for access to doctors’ care, Carey said.
Particularly at risk in the cuts is the care children receive from pediatricians, Carey said. Although many pediatricians treat some Medicaid patients, economic realities are forcing some of them to stop seeing new Medicaid patients, Carey said.
The society’s news release quoted Dr. Peter Houck, of the Johnson Health Center in Lynchburg, as saying that 7,000 children use the clinic.
Carey said the proposed cuts could lead to many of those children being referred to university-related hospitals that can use federal training grants to treat patients.
But more likely, those patients would go to local hospital emergency departments with long wait times and operating costs that are four times higher than community health centers.
Most community centers don’t have enough doctors or appointment times to see all the Medicaid-qualified patients who turn to them, said Richard Shinn, director of public affairs for the Virginia Community Healthcare Association. The local emergency room is their next alternative, Shinn said.
Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, said earlier this week that in preparing the House of Delegates budget bill, ”difficult decisions had to be made.”
The House bill would reduce the eligibility limit for the children’s health insurance program from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 175 percent.
“I am hoping that if Virginia receives additional federal enhanced Medicaid dollars proposed in either federal legislation or the president’s budget, then we can restore eligibility to current levels,” Putney told the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday.
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