AHA, NNU Pan Debt Ceiling Proposal

The American Hospital Association and National Nurses United are criticizing the $2.4 trillion debt ceiling and deficit reduction package that they believe could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs.

The House passed the deficit reduction package bill by a 269-161 vote Monday evening. It is expected to clear the Senate Tuesday.

"America's hospitals find it difficult to support a debt ceiling proposal that could negatively affect Medicare for our nation's seniors," AHA President Rich Umbdenstock said in a prepared statement.  "Hospitals have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to accept shared sacrifice and do what is best for our country, but our first commitment is to patients, whose access to care could be curtailed by further cuts to Medicare funding for hospital care."

The proposal Congress approved Monday is expected to slash about $2.4 trillion from the national debt from 2012 through 2021. About $917 billion in cuts would be identified in the budget process, and $1.5 trillion in reductions would be found by a special, 12-member, bicameral, bipartisan commission. That committee would meet later this year, and its recommendations would be subject to a single up-or-down vote in the House and Senate.  

Medicaid and Medicare are not expected to be impacted in the first round of cuts, but they are expected to be targeted by the 12-member committee, which has yet to be named.

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the 170,000-member National Nurses United, said the massive cuts to social and healthcare programs that will likely be prompted by the proposals would only make matters worse in a faltering economy, and inflict "deep pain in Main Street communities across the nation."

"What this latest deal does is make those who vote for it a full partner in the discredited theory that our economy is in freefall because of public spending on programs that help people, and kicks the can further down the road on real solutions that are needed to promote genuine recovery," DeMoro said in a media release.

"President Obama could avoid this current high wire act by invoking the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling, as many have proposed, and start this process over with solutions designed to address the real economic problems facing American families," she said.

Umbdenstock says the cuts would come just as more seniors are turning to hospitals for their care. "Funding reductions for hospital services translate into decreased access for our nation's seniors.  That's why the total Medicare program – including caregivers – should be exempt from "sequestration."  Cuts to Medicare funding for hospital care could overload emergency rooms, shut down trauma units and reduce patient access to the latest treatments."

The AHA president said hospitals recognize that Medicare needs to be modernized, but that it shouldn't be done "on the backs of providers who care for our nation's most vulnerable."

"We want to work with the new congressional committee to identify real reform that will secure Medicare for future generations rather than continued ratcheting of providers," he said.