Arizona’s healthcare landscape faces potential upheaval as state officials express concern over recent Medicaid cuts proposed by House Republicans. According to Governor Katie Hobbs, these reductions could significantly impact medical services, particularly in rural and tribal regions.
During a visit to Flagstaff Medical Center, Hobbs emphasized the detrimental effects these budget cuts could have on hospitals statewide. “Hospitals across the state are gonna have to start making really, really tough decisions. Their emergency rooms will be overwhelmed because that’s the level where people will seek care, because they can’t get care otherwise,” she stated.
The proposed cuts could leave a substantial portion of Arizona’s Medicaid recipients without insurance. Experts suggest that up to 750,000 of the nearly 2 million enrollees could be affected, exacerbating healthcare access issues in already underserved areas like tribal lands.
Joining Hobbs on her tour, Northern Arizona Healthcare CEO David Cheney highlighted the risks associated with decreased Medicaid funding. He noted that cutbacks could lead to delayed medical consultations, worsening patient health outcomes. “That is really dangerous, and we saw that in COVID, where people didn’t want to go in to their doctor. So they’d get some chest pain. Normally, they would go to their doctor, but they kept putting it off. They would wait until their big heart attack. So that is the concern we have is delayed treatment,” Cheney explained.
Cheney further revealed that Medicaid currently covers about 30% of their trauma patients, underscoring the critical role the program plays in the region’s healthcare system.
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