Medicaid Cuts and Job Losses

Posted on June 23, 2011 by townsend

• Medicaid cuts would threaten state jobs, group says, By Kate Long, June 22, 2011, Charleston Gazette: “West Virginia would lose as many as 10,800 health-care jobs in the next 10 years if the Senate were to pass the deep Medicaid cuts the House of Representatives has already approved, according to a report released Wednesday by the health-care consumer group Families USA. More than 116,000 West Virginians now work in health-care-associated jobs, according to Workforce West Virginia statistics. No other job sector employs more people in the state. In comparison, about 90,000 work in retail and trade and 30,000 in mining jobs…”
• ‘Jobs At Risk’ analysis: Group warns of economic impact of Medicaid cuts, By Robin Williams Adams, June 21, 2011, Lakeland Ledger: “Federal cuts in Medicaid funding for states would affect many more than nursing home residents and other patients who depend on that federal-state program, a report released Tuesday warns. Health care employees will lose jobs as a direct result of Medicaid cutbacks, and the impact will spread quickly into the rest of the economy, according to Families USA, a nonprofit group that pushes for quality, affordable care. In a teleconference, Families USA released the Florida results of ‘Jobs at Risk,’ a state-by-state analysis of the economic impact of 5 percent, 15 percent and 33 percent cuts in federal funding to current state Medicaid programs. Those are the amounts of Medicaid cuts included in the budget passed by the U.S. House, Executive Director Ron Pollack said, with the mildest cut, 5 percent, proposed for 2013 and the steepest, 33 percent, for 2021. The 15 percent would be in 2014…”