Editorial: Medicaid doesn't just provide care to the poor

Making cuts to one program often has a fallout beyond the intended recipient.

For example, whenever a proposal is made to cut all benefits that might go to someone testing positive for drugs, there are voices in favor. It is understandable that many people don’t want to give assistance to someone who could use that help to obtain drugs. The fallout of taking away food or fuel or medical assistance for these people, however, is that it can take away the food and heat and medicine from their children.

These are things that must be carefully considered when making cuts in government programs. And it is important because it can be bigger than one family suffering.

It can be a whole community.

In recent years, we have written a lot about the way ambulance services continue to be there for their neighborhoods despite hanging on to solvency by their fingernails.

In December, West Deer EMS was thrown a lifeline when the township bought it a $203,000 ambulance. Eureka Community Ambulance entered consolidation talks with Citizens Hose EMS in Harrison after announcing it needed to close its doors or cut back operations unless a funding solution was found. Jeannette EMS filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

Then there are the prescription drugs. We have written about the closures of multiple independent and small chain pharmacies that struggled to keep the doors open despite having patients who relied on them.

The problem that comes up repeatedly with these stories are reimbursement rates, especially for Medicare and Medicaid. When an ambulance service or a drug store is not reimbursed enough to cover the cost of a ride or a drug and the cost of keeping the doors open, it risks closing them.

“Look at it from a macro perspective: The customers are going to suffer. That’s the bottom line,” Michael Sheffler of Precision Care Pharmacy in Greensburg told lawmakers at a roundtable at Westmoreland County Community College in May.

That is the fear with talk of Medicaid cuts. If services that people depend on are already closing amid the reimbursements now, how much closer to the bone can providers cut and still provide those services?

“Medicaid is an essential program,” said Rep. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon. “It is life sustaining. It serves Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.”

Cuts to Medicaid, as suggested by congressional Republicans, would hurt children, seniors and the poor. But they also would hurt people who depend on those same services and aren’t on government programs.

They would hurt people who are in car crashes and people who have heart attacks. They would hurt people who take insulin and blood pressure medication. They would hurt job creators and economic engines.

That is the aspect of Medicaid cuts that needs more attention. Providing adequate medical care to some of the people helps maintain the medical care available to all of the people.