Hospitals could face cuts as part of Build Back Better plan, say Senators Cruz and Scott

Senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) argue that President Biden’s Build Back Better plan includes spending cuts for charity hospitals. 

“In President Biden’s America, ‘Build Back Better’ means cutting spending for hospitals that provide care to underserved communities to fund tax cuts for the super-wealthy,” wrote the two senators in an opinion piece for The Hill published on Friday. “It’s quite an example of just how far the Democrats’ socialist agenda has taken them from reality.”

The Build Back Better bill proposes reducing Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments (DSH) by 12.5 percent by 2023 and includes payment cuts to Uncompensated Care Pool (UCP), say the two senators.

The funds from these programs help offset hospital costs for uninsured individuals or when Medicaid payments fall short, maintaining a hospital’s financial stability. Hospitals claim these cuts will hurt their ability to take care of patients.

“These cuts to DSH and UCP programs will reduce federal funding for providers in 12 states by $34.5 billion over 10 years. Broken down, that’s $4.2 billion in DSH cuts to hospitals in 12 states, and $30 billion in cuts to UCP programs in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Kansas,” the senators said.

“What does that mean? As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi want to slash federal funds to hospitals who care for low-income patients, along with those who are underserved and uninsured. These patients, who are currently eligible for charitable and low-income assistance, may begin seeing medical bills and incurring medical debt.”

According to Senators Scott and Cruz, these cuts to hospitals were done in secret. On November 5, a group of Congressmen sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they were not informed of the addition of this clause to the bill.

“We were not warned of this proposed “pay-for” until updated text was released last week. It was not considered by any of our committees this year,” said the letter.

“Biden and Pelosi have written the bill to punish states that have not adopted their progressive health care agenda. They do this by cutting the availability of care targeted to the poor,” said Scott and Cruz.

“Cutting this care to help pay for tax cuts for the rich makes no sense and can’t be allowed to pass. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to fight like hell to stop this and we hope at least some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join us,” said the op-ed.