Advocate To Save Medicaid

Advocate To Save Medicaid
By: Michael Hamant, MD Past President PCMS

Please call Rep. Ciscomani today and ask that he vote against any proposed cuts in the Medicaid budget. The Congress is currently considering the budget which may include up to $880 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program.

Cuts in the Medicaid budget will affect 300,000 patients in Pima County and 2 million in the state. That includes 750,000 children under 17 years old. Hospitals cannot sustain those severe cuts, especially rural hospitals where up to 50% of patients are on Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion in 2013, which was supported by PCMS, insured the working poor up to 138% of the federal poverty level. 90% of those funds are federal dollars which the state of Arizona cannot possibly make up. The vast majority of patients on Medicaid are children, the disabled, and the working poor. “Fraud and abuse” do not require wholesale destruction of the program.

Call Rep. Ciscomani at 520-881-3588 (Tucson) or 202-225-2542 (Washington, DC).

Michael Hamant, MD
Past President PCMS