WASHINGTON — Hospitals in seven major U.S. cities, including Denver, would be overwhelmed if any of the cities were struck by a terrorist attack on the scale of the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, and shortages of emergency-room capacity and intensive-care beds will grow worse if Bush administration Medicaid changes are implemented, House Democrats alleged Monday.
In a survey by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, more than half of 34 hospitals in five U.S. cities deemed at greatest risk of attack and two cities that will host this summer’s national political conventions said they had no emergency room treatment space available to accept severely injured patients.
“America’s emergency departments are already operating over capacity,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Despite warnings, he added, the Department of Health and Human Services “has issued three Medicaid regulations that will reduce federal funds to public and teaching hospitals by tens of billions of dollars over the next five years.”
The cities surveyed were Denver, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Houston and Minneapolis.
