WASHINGTON \u2014 Three Long Island-based hospitals are among 45 in New York State and 446 nationwide at risk of reducing services or even closing due to Medicaid cuts imposed by President Donald Trump\u2019s tax-cutting budget package known as The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a new study shows.<\/p>\n
Mercy Medical Center, Nassau University Medical Center and Stony Brook University Hospital are identified as being among those most in jeopardy from what the Congressional Budget Office says will be a $911 billion cut in federal spending on Medicaid and lower-cost health insurance for children (CHIP) over the next 10 years under the bill passed last year.<\/p>\n
“The cuts will be devastating to many low-income and disabled individuals who rely on Medicaid,” the analysis from the progressive government watchdog group Public Citizen says. “Moreover, they will have knock-on effects on hospitals that disproportionately serve these communities, deepening the financial strain already plaguing rural and safety-net hospitals and compromising their ability to deliver care, potentially leading many to close.”<\/p>\n
The analysis does not flat-out predict that the hospitals it identifies on Long Island and elsewhere will close. But it does list them at “heightened” risk of shutting down, reducing the medical services they provide, or laying off workers because of the Medicaid cuts imposed by the OBBA.<\/p>\n
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDThree Long Island-based hospitals are among 45 in New York State\u00a0at risk of reducing services or even closing due to federal Medicaid cuts, a new study says.Mercy Medical Center, Nassau University Medical Center and Stony Brook University Hospital are identified as being among those most in jeopardy from the cuts, according to\u00a0progressive government watchdog group Public Citizen.The\u00a0analysis come as some of the most significant potential impacts of the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts imposed by President Donald Trump\u2019s tax-cutting budget package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n
Without asserting any political blame, Thomas Stokes, CEO of\u00a0Nassau University Medical Center, said NUMC “is deeply concerned about the impact of potential Medicaid cuts on safety-net hospitals and the communities we serve.”<\/p>\n
Medicaid is a health insurance program\u00a0that generally covers children under the age 18 from families with low and moderate incomes, pregnant women and other parents with low and moderate incomes, and individuals with disabilities.<\/p>\n
It is\u00a0funded jointly by the federal government and the states. Eligibility in New York is defined more broadly than in many other states, with Medicaid enrollment second only to California, at about 7 million, according to the state comptroller\u2019s office. Federal Medicaid spending in New York during the state\u2019s 2025 fiscal year totaled $69.2 billion, out of a total of $115.6 billion.<\/p>\n
The concerns reported in the Public Citizen analysis come as some of the most significant potential impacts of the nearly $1 trillion in OBBBA Medicaid cuts have yet to be phased in. Those include\u00a0work requirements for many recipients in 2027 and new caps on reimbursements for extra state direct payments in 2028.<\/p>\n
But already, Trump has started to suggest even deeper Medicaid cuts and greater state responsibility.\u00a0
Currently, Medicaid covers about one-fifth of all hospital spending nationally, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. New York and four other states \u2014 Connecticut, California, Massachusetts and Washington \u2014 each\u00a0have over a quarter of all their hospitals at risk because of the cuts, the Public Citizen study says.<\/p>\n
“Medicaid is essential to providing care for vulnerable patients and sustaining hospitals like NUMC,” Stokes said in a statement. He added, “Reducing Medicaid funding would significantly strain providers, limit access to critical services, and disproportionately harm low-income patients, seniors, and people with disabilities.”<\/p>\n
A statement provided by\u00a0Stony Brook Medicine officials said\u00a0that as Suffolk County’s only academic medical center and Level 1 Trauma Center for both adults and children, “we remain committed to delivering high-quality care and there are no disruptions to any hospital services.<\/p>\n
“Hospital leaders continuously monitor the state of affairs on the federal level to make informed decisions that support the patients we serve and our community,” the statement added.\u00a0There were no immediate responses to requests for comment from Mercy Medical Center.<\/p>\n
Kenneth E. Raske. president and chief executive officer of the Greater New York Hospital Association, did not want to speak on the report\u2019s identification of specific medical institutions at risk from the cuts. But he said when fully implemented, they could amount to billions of dollars in impacts for\u00a0hospitals.<\/p>\n
“As you get to Medicaid cuts, he said, “financial exposure increases so immensely that it doesn\u2019t take much to put you over the edge.” He added the results could be “devastating,” ranging from not just people going without basic health care who can\u2019t afford it, but also thousands of medical and hospital jobs being impacted.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s time to hit the pause button,” he said of the scheduled reductions.<\/p>\n
The trio of Long Island hospitals that are listed in the study as vulnerable have more than 1,200 beds collectively. Of those, Stony Brook University Hospital is the only one in a district represented by a Republican who voted for the OBBA, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville).<\/p>\n
LaLota\u00a0at events and online describes the OBBA\u2019s passage as the most significant tax relief for the middle class in a generation \u2014 including its raised cap on State and Local Tax deductions (SALT). He criticized the Public Citizen\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n
“The non-partisan truth: No senior, child, pregnant woman, or person with disabilities is losing Medicaid because of this bill. Not one,” LaLota said in a statement. “What we did is simple and reasonable.”<\/p>\n
LaLota said Congress has had to fix\u00a0one unintended consequence involving calculations to Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments, which would have led to reductions in disbursements in that category to support safety-net hospitals such as\u00a0Stony Brook. But the “real problem,” he said, is that “New York spends more per Medicaid enrollee than almost any state, yet hospitals are struggling and providers are underpaid.”<\/p>\n
“Albany has expanded Medicaid beyond sustainable levels, spent billions on coverage for those here illegally, and failed to enforce basic oversight,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre), who opposed Trump\u2019s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, has a different view.<\/p>\n
“Working families, seniors, and those who need care most on Long Island will suffer because of Washington Republicans\u2019 cruel Medicaid cuts,” Gillen said\u00a0in a statement when asked about the Public Citizen report.<\/p>\n
“Our hospitals are already straining to keep up as more patients overwhelm their emergency rooms, while services and specialized care are threatened,” Gillen added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In its methodology, Public Citizen\u00a0said it used hospital financial data from 2022 through 2024 available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The report dubbed hospitals to be at risk if 20% or more of their revenue from 2022 through 2024 came from Medicaid or other so-called low-income government program payers, and have been operating at a net loss in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Three Long Island-based hospitals are among 45 in New York State and 446 nationwide at risk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,17124,30094],"class_list":["post-575860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-trump-health","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575860","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=575860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}