When states began opting in to Medicaid expansion after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, among the beneficiaries were the teaching hospitals that train doctors and nurses and serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients.
But if the U.S. Senate’s proposal to replace the ACA goes through, higher education groups say, those teaching institutions could take a large hit to their bottom lines because of serious Medicaid cuts. In addition, the pressures those reductions would put on state budgets likely will lead to less support of public higher education, the groups warned.
The Senate health-care bill, dubbed the Better Care Reconciliation Act, eventually would pare back the federal funding that made Medicaid expansion possible in many states. For teaching hospitals in those states, the expansion meant fewer uninsured patients and a lower budgetary burden for providing uncompensated care. Even in states that didn’t expand Medicaid in recent years, the Senate proposal would mean serious reductions to the program by awarding states funding through block grants instead of a set per-patient amount.
