NEPA healthcare advocates say Medicaid cuts will be devastating locally

Nursing home careworkers and health care advocates held a press conference Tuesday in support of preserving Medicaid funding for the over three million Pennsylvanians just as Congress begins debating a federal budget that proposes significant cuts to the program, a move that health care workers said would “devastate the health economy” of NEPA. Representatives of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association, and Pennsylvania Health Access Network joined nursing home careworkers at the Dunmore Healthcare Center to speak out against the potential Medicaid cuts and discuss their impact on residents of the Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district, which includes a large portion of Luzerne County. According to AP News, the Energy and Commerce Committee reconciliation recommendations include at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid over the next 10 years.