New Healthcare Coalition warns of dire impact if Medicaid cut

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

The newly formed Healthcare Coalition for the North Country gathered in downtown Lake George last Wednesday “to caution Washington leaders against enacting quick cuts to Medicaid that could do serious damage to the North Country’s regional healthcare delivery system.”

“Our job is to explain why Medicaid matters here. We do it on a non-partisan basis. We’re not trying to be political — we’re trying to be educators,” said Coalition co-founder Dr. John Rugge, who founded Hudson Headwaters Health Network in 1974.

Retired physician and Coalition steering committee member Dr. Bill Tedesco said, “We all know that if there’s any cuts to Medicaid along with the Affordable Care Act, it’ll be totally devastating to the North Country.”

Dr. Rick Leach, another retired physician and Coalition steering committee member, said roughly 28% of the people who live in the NY-21 Congressional district are on Medicaid, and half of those are “unable to work for whatever reason” and the other half “are working people.”

He said 66% of people in nursing homes are on Medicaid.

“A lot of our nursing homes are borderline viable now,” said Dr. Leach. “Some of them have already gone out of business.

“If two thirds of their people are going to lose their health coverage — and it’s not just the patients who would lose health coverage, there will be some cuts to the nursing homes themselves — what’s going to happen to our nursing homes?”

Dr. Leach said. “If Medicaid is defunded, thousands of our neighbors will suffer directly, and the rest of us will suffer too. Suffer in decreasing availability of healthcare providers and services, in the faltering of our economies, and in the extra burdens the losses of services will cause us as individuals who have healthcare coverage.”

Dr. Rugge said said 50% of all new baby deliveries in this region are Medicaid-funded, warning, “If those go away, obstetrical care locally may also go away.”

Dr. Leach noted, “I’ve always been taught that the mark of a great country is in fact how you take care of your most vulnerable, and we are not by any means living up to that.”

South Glens Falls resident Heather Kirk said she works “at a school where our population is all kids with various special needs. Medicaid funding to schools is a critical resource for us to be able to meet the needs of our students with disabilities who require medically necessary services.”

She added, “As a parent of a child with special needs, there are a lot of stressors in our lives on a day to day basis just from the complexity of diagnosis, their health and caring for them. Why should worrying about whether we can get adequate health care and services for them be one of them? Why should worrying about whether our children will get the therapeutic services in the education setting be one of them?”

Katie Williams, who was born with Spina Bifida and can’t stand or walk, said, “Without Medicaid, I would not be able to get my wheelchair.”

She said she has an aide through Medicaid, and it supports her participation in the Hyde Art Program, trips to the Wellness Center, and other appointments.

Ms. Williams said she lives in a handicap accessible house and utilizes a lift that helps her get in and out of her home.

“I probably wouldn’t be able to live the life that I live as independently without these programs and assistance,” she said.

The Healthcare group describes itself as a “nonpartisan, volunteer coalition of healthcare professionals, caregivers, business and community leaders, Medicaid recipients, and concerned citizens.”

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