Health care forum in Stevens County addresses impact of proposed Medicaid cuts in rural communities

Jun. 1—CHEWELAH — Proposed cuts to Medicaid could harm health care provided in rural northeastern Washington, a group of medical leaders warned in a forum last week.

"There's less funding in the system for long -term care, for hospital care, for community health care, for rural health care, and that is the concern," said Jason McGill, assistant director for Washington State Healthcare Authority's Medicaid Programs Division.

Legislation that passed by one vote last month in the U.S. House would result in at least 8.6 million people losing their health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that provides information to lawmakers. The main aim of the bill is to cut taxes and boost immigration enforcement.

Nearly 70 people gathered at Gess Elementary School for the Stevens County Healthcare Forum, Thursday evening, where panelists discussed how proposed federal cuts would affect hospitals, long-term care and social service agencies. The panelists included McGill and Lauren Platt, chief state government affairs and community health investment officer for Providence's north division. Both joined via Zoom.

The forum, hosted by Indivisible Chewelah, also included testimonials from Susan Hitch, home care coordinator for Catholic Charities, and Lynn Kimball, executive director of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington, who also joined through Zoom.

McGill, who's been with the government organization for six years, opened with a presentation highlighting the potential impact across Eastern Washington.

"We're talking about 30% of the people in the Fifth Congressional District in Eastern Washington. For adult Medicaid, we're talking about 22%, and for children we're talking about 54%," McGill said.

He added that in Eastern Washington's Fifth Congressional District, alone, 72% of community health centers would be affected by cuts. According to the presentation, there are 27 community health centers across the state, half of whom serve rural communities.

Platt said these federal proposals are a significant concern to the work Providence does across Washington state.

She noted that Providence operates two critical access hospitals in Stevens County — Mount Carmel and St. Joseph's — both of which provide emergency and acute care, surgery and long-term services.

"For our hospitals, about a quarter of our patients are on Medicaid," Platt said. "Together with Medicare, about three-quarters of patients — even more at St. Joseph's — are on these government-sponsored programs."

Kimball said her social service agency currently assists around 5,000 people, including 340 in Stevens County.

"We also have other Medicaid waiver programs that help, in addition to that paid caregiver that's coming into the home to do personal care, and we have another program in Stevens County that serves another 118 individuals, so we know it's a good number of people that are mostly older adults, but are also adults with disabilities that need help," Kimball said.

As of November 2024, Hitch said Catholic Charities serves 489 in-home care clients in Stevens County and more than 700 across Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties. Cuts, she said, would cause a ripple effect across the health care system.

Hitch added their in-home care programs are funded 50% by the state and 50% by the federal government.

"Cutting the budget for Medicaid most likely will result in an increased need of placement to adult family homes or skilled nursing facilities which already have waiting lists for admissions," Hitch said. Often, clients are forced to transfer to facilities out of county due to lack of open beds."

"Many of our clients have chronic health conditions and would surely need these facilities," she continued.

She also said the cuts would strain an "already struggling rural hospital," which will result in higher admissions to the ER visits to local clinics will increase. However, it's unclear what rural hospital she is referring to.

"This will cause limited availability for appointments, and this will lead to longer wait times for follow -ups to see their primary care," she said.

McGill reminded attendees many employers do not provide health insurance coverage, which makes Medicaid a safety net for children, especially in rural areas. This includes pregnancies and related services, he emphasized.

"But as you can see — Medicaid is our long -term care system in Washington and the rest of the nation, so we cannot ignore the importance to a lot of long-term care and coverage and services for people with intellectual developmental disabilities, and how critical Medicaid is for that," McGill said.

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