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● STOP THE CUTS! ●
 

Budget Cuts will Cripple Pennsylvania Hospitals

The controversial Senate Republican budget proposal now being debated by the state House of Representatives is not only out of balance by $1.5 billion, but it also threatens our most vulnerable citizens.  The plan slashes more than $280 million in medical assistance payments to hospitals, creating a devastating economic situation through loss of jobs as well access to quality medical care.

These cuts would devastate hospitals and health care delivery, leave patients out in the cold and cripple Pennsylvania’s economy; not to mention the federal stimulus funds that would be jeopardized if these cuts were allowed.

Medical Assistance payments provide health care services to approximately 1.9 million Pennsylvanians. Cut that funding and Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable – children, the elderly, those living with disabilities and pregnant women - will suffer the most.

If Senate Bill 850 is passed, the impact of these cuts in Philadelphia alone would be alarming:

• Temple, University of Pennsylvania and Albert Einstein would lose an estimated $85 million

• Philadelphia Mercy Hospital would lose $1.5 million state and $1.8 million federal

• OB/Neonatal services will be eliminated - $5 million state and $6 million federal

• Payments to trauma centers would be eliminated - $12.3 million state and $15 million federal

• Burn center funding would be eliminated – a loss of $5.1 million state

These are CRITICAL services that would all suffer tremendously with this spending plan.
Philadelphia has eight hospitals that received an OB/neonatal payment in fiscal year 2007-08, as well as eight trauma centers. Two hospitals in Philadelphia received Burn Center payments in 2007-08. All these dollars would vanish in 2009-10 if this budget is enacted.

Not only will patients suffer if these cuts are enacted, this spending plan will result in the loss of 13,000 hospital jobs. This loss of jobs will most assuredly lead to chaotic and overcrowding emergency rooms due to shortage of staff. This will force patients to travel longer distances to other, already overburdened hospitals, delaying treatment and possibly causing longer hospital stays and increasing costs exponentially.

Pennsylvania’s medical system would deteriorate and those desperately in need of treatment and medication would be left out in the cold.

Hospitals in periods of economic upheaval need more help to deal with high costs of servicing those who have no insurance. This is not the time to turn away from helping hospitals.

Hospitals are, at times, leaders in job creation for every level of worker, from doctors to nurses to janitors and food service workers. By eliminating funding, we are doing a huge disservice to economic development in the region and forcing more Pennsylvanians into the unemployment line.

There is no doubt that a budget needs to be passed right now. But this state cannot afford a spending plan that is balanced on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens by drastically cutting medical assistance funds and hospital payments.
 

● STOP THE CUTS! ●