Public News Service: Rural Virginia doctor: Patients, providers imperiled by Medicaid cuts

VIRGINIA – As Winsome Earle-Sears praises Donald Trump’s tax bill, saying it “does so many great things,” a new interview  from the Public News Service highlights a rural Virginia doctor’s concerns about the devastating fallout for Virginia patients and healthcare providers. He “believes Trump’s budget bill will negatively affect providers, patients and people across the board in rural areas.”

“While Trump’s tax bill is hurting Virginians, Winsome Earle-Sears believes it ‘does so many great things.’ Sears must answer why she thinks stripping Virginians of healthcare and forcing rural hospitals to close is so ‘great,’” said DPVA Spokesperson Maggie Amjad.

Public News Service: Rural Virginia doctor: Patients, providers imperiled by Medicaid cuts

• Dr. Sterling Ransone, a family physician in Deltaville, said more than 15% of his patients are on Medicaid. He believes Trump’s budget bill will negatively affect providers, patients and people across the board in rural areas. For patients, he explained, the Medicaid cuts likely mean putting off necessary preventive care, leading to worse health outcomes.

• Republican lawmakers have defended the budget bill, [...].

• Ransone added hospitals are at risk, too. A report by researchers at the University of North Carolina found six rural hospitals in Virginia would be at risk of closing, a number of which were top Medicaid providers. The closures would limit access to care for a large swath of Virginians and not just those on Medicaid.

• Ransone noted physicians like him would need to limit the number of Medicaid patients to keep their offices operating.

• "With Medicaid cuts, we’re gonna have to figure out how, if we’re not getting paid enough to keep our doors open, we’re going to have to figure out other ways to pay our staff, keep our doors open," Ransone emphasized. "And most likely, that will involve seeing fewer Medicaid patients."

• Virginia’s Medicaid expansion, which allowed doctors like Ransone to care for more Medicaid patients, would also be threatened. The Commonwealth expanded Medicaid in 2018 but any reduction in federal spending triggers the state to revert to pre-expansion funding levels.

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