A panel of Arizona health experts highlighted the way Medicaid cuts are expected to hit Arizonans in and out of the program at a roundtable hosted by Democratic Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A federal bill, labeled the One Big Beautiful Bill by President Donald Trump, was signed into law on July 4 and will cause more than $800 billion of Medicaid cuts over the next decade.<\/p>\n
Arizona\u2019s Medicaid agency is called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS. About 1.9 million Arizonans are enrolled in the program and between 200,000 and 350,000 Arizonans are expected to be kicked off the program due to the cuts in the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cuts are going to be devastating, not only to our health care system and the health of these individuals who are going to lose health care coverage, but to anybody who receives health care here in Arizona, there is likely an impact,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n
Anticipated premium hikes<\/b><\/p>\n
Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association Senior Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Helena Whitney said, historically, Medicaid cuts have led to increases in health insurance premiums as providers shift costs to private sector employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s very clear that health insurance premiums are going to go up. \u2026 Those increases to businesses trying to get insurance for their companies is going to go higher and higher, and then it becomes an affordability question. How do you keep doing that?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Anticipated homelessness increase<\/b><\/p>\n
Another population likely to be affected by the cuts are homeless people, or Arizonans close to homelessness.<\/p>\n
Scott Hall with Phoenix\u2019s Office of Homeless Solutions said many low-income or homeless people in the city use Medicaid. Physical health, mental health and substance abuse are some of the main contributing factors to homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people divert experiencing homelessness just because they receive the right mental health services and substance abuse services. And as we make that more complex and challenging for people, we are going to see that exponentially increase,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
Anticipated emergency room delays<\/b><\/p>\n
One thing several panelists brought up is the likely increase in emergency room wait times.<\/p>\n
One reason is that if Arizonans are no longer getting Medicaid, they may wait until they are sicker than usual to go to the hospital and will turn to emergency rooms instead of primary care physicians.<\/p>\n
Another reason is the cuts are expected to shut down access to health care in rural parts of the state, which may lead rural Arizonans to travel to cities like Phoenix for care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re waiting five hours today in the ED to get seen, you can double and triple that, because the more and more people that come into an emergency department, the longer it’s going to be until anyone can get care,\u201d Whitney said.<\/p>\n
Anticipated economic effects<\/b><\/p>\n
Gallego said she\u2019s concerned it will impact the city\u2019s fire service because currently, about 40% of transports are paid for Medicaid. And if people wait to go to the hospital until they\u2019re severely sick or injured because they no longer have health insurance, they may be more likely to take an ambulance to the hospital, and reimbursements may go down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same bill that put additional requirements on Medicaid also is quite likely to lead to perhaps a $50 million loss in revenue for the city,\u201d Gallego said.<\/p>\n
Valleywise Health President and CEO Steve Purves said about 50% of the organization\u2019s revenue comes from Medicaid.<\/p>\n