Letter to the editor: Medicaid cuts threaten lives
As CEO of Mental Health America of Southwestern PA, I see firsthand how mental illness, addiction and trauma affect lives in our community. Every day, we connect community residents with the lifesaving care they need to survive and heal. Now, that care is under threat.
Mental health is not a partisan issue. Having a mental health problem can happen to Democrats, Republicans and independents. It knows no ethnic or socioeconomic bounds. Having a mental health issue can happen to anyone at any time.
The sweeping budget bill gutted Medicaid and stripped health coverage from thousands in our region. More than 700,000 Pennsylvanians — many with serious mental health and substance use conditions — could lose their access to care.
Pennsylvania is already in a behavioral health crisis. We face workforce shortages, overcrowded ERs and an addiction epidemic that continues to strain local systems. Rural hospitals, many barely breaking even, can’t absorb more uncompensated care. Make no mistake, these cuts can push fragile systems past the breaking point, leaving entire communities without access to help.
Medicaid is our state’s largest funder of behavioral health care. It pays for peer support, therapy, medications, crisis services and addiction treatment. These services are lifesaving.
This isn’t about politics, it’s about people: the grandmother, the parents, real individuals — members of our community.
Laurie Barnett Levine
Greensburg
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