Projected strain on health care for the poor

The medical community has highlighted the potentially devastating effects that the funding cuts to Medicaid and insurance subsidies mandated by the most recent federal budget are expected to have. KFF Health News published an article highlighting the anticipated impact on a specific community in Texas. Already, the health care system in Starr County seems stretched thin: it "has one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation" and "a third of the population falls below the poverty line." Additionally, primary care doctors in the county serve nearly three times the number of patients as the U.S. average. Since so many people lack insurance, they frequently delay seeking medical care until their conditions are more acute, and are therefore more expensive to treat. The number of uninsured is expected to rise, given the anticipated dramatic rise in out-of-pocket premiums. In conjunction with the funding cuts to Medicaid, it seems that the local health care system will be asked to do more with less.

Supporters of the new budget seem less concerned, citing "a temporary $50 billion fund to support rural doctors and hospitals, that's a little over a third of estimated Medicaid funding losses in rural areas" and a general belief that the new budget "won't cause 'the sky to fall.'" These dramatic changes, however, seem at the very least disruptive, and it is difficult to imagine how a temporary fund will be enough to offset funding cuts in the affected area that are nearly three times the temporary fund.