With Colorado’s safety-net hospitals facing steep cuts in federal funds next month, the U.S. House appeared poised Tuesday to protect local hospitals from the cuts to Medicaid, a federal health care program for low-income people.
House leaders said they expected to vote today on the Protect the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008, which would delay for a year changes to Medicaid rules planned by the Bush administration.
The bill has bipartisan support, with 205 co-sponsors.
“In the end, I think that the Republicans realized these cuts would really hurt hospitals in their districts as well as in our districts,” said Rep Diana DeGette, D-Colo, a co-sponsor of the bill.
If the administration’s rule changes go through, the most significant change for Colorado would be that next month, several state hospitals — including Denver Health and University of Colorado Hospital — would no longer be considered “safety net.”
Safety-net hospitals receive higher reimbursement from Medicaid because they treat so many uninsured patients.
Denver Health — which treated nearly 43,000 Medicaid patients in 2006 — estimated it would lose about $60 million from the hospital’s $510 million budget, and University Hospital’s estimated cut was put at about $30 million.
DeGette said she has been happy to watch bipartisan support for the bill grow since it passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee 46-0 earlier this month.
The Medicaid protection bill is now scheduled to go up on the House’s “suspension calendar” today, she said — a designation “for non-controversial bills . . . that just don’t have a lot of opposition,” DeGette said.
Suspension rules require a two-thirds majority vote — so passage would be enough to override a possible presidential veto.
In total, the Medicaid rule changes would mean $157 million less annually — money that supports the Colorado health care industry, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy group.
That’s nearly 10 percent of Colorado’s total federal Medicaid dollars, he said.
Katy Human: 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com
