(WJAR) \u2014 Gov. Dan McKee joined hospital officials on Friday to call on legislators to support the passage of millions of dollars to Rhode Island hospitals to help cover the cost of uninsured patients.<\/p>\n
McKee chose to make his pitch in the lobby of the Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital, which he said he had \u201ca special little feeling\u201d for because of the work they do to help the young and their families. In front of him on the podium was a campaign-style poster that said \u201cInvesting In Hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The industry and McKee are expecting more uninsured patients as the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress have helped make cuts to the Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cold winds coming from D.C. and the Republicans\u2019 unwillingness to continue the tax credits that would allow more people to be covered in health insurance, that is going away for the moment,\u201d McKee said.<\/p>\n
To help pay for a rise in uncompensated care, McKee set aside $10 million in his proposed budget. The administration says the funds will be distributed to Rhode Island-based hospitals through the Disproportionate Share Hospitals payment system.<\/p>\n
This initiative is among a handful meant to shore up safety nets snipped by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very difficult issue relative to healthcare that we are facing,\u201d said McKee. \u201cBut it is one of my administration\u2019s very top goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKee blamed the Republicans for the cuts and said it was going to put additional pressure on hospitals, which he called the anchors for the state\u2019s healthcare system.<\/p>\n
He estimates that more than 30,000 Rhode Islanders can be impacted by Medicaid changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen coverage disappears, medical needs do not,\u201d said President of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, Michael Sroczynski. \u201cPeople delay care, conditions worsen, and patients ultimately arrive at hospitals with more complex and more resource-intensive needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sroczynski says those costs are just absorbed by the hospitals, which then need to make cuts, which translates to longer waits and a reduction of service for patients.<\/p>\n
Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is not the type of healthcare system Rhode Island wants or deserves,\u201d said Sroczynski.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WJAR) \u2014 Gov. Dan McKee joined hospital officials on Friday to call on legislators to support the passage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-562938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}