Doctors warned that a safety net system could become crippled by federal Medicaid cuts, as patients described how the program saves lives, at an event Wednesday at Denver Health.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 even be here today if I didn鈥檛 have Medicaid,鈥� said patient Denise Gipson, who credited health care she got, covered by the program, after she suffered heart failure.
A budget bill in Congress in the U.S. House. Now, the Senate will take it up. It would cut trillions in taxes while chopping back historic levels of funding for safety net programs like and .
Ad:Sen. Michael Bennet sounded less than optimistic about winning over his Republican colleagues, who control the House and Senate, to scale back their plans.
鈥淚 think we have to fight it and I think we鈥檝e got to do everything we can to try to stop it. I don鈥檛 want to create a set of false expectations,鈥� said Bennet, a Democrat and the state鈥檚 senior senator. 鈥淚 think the American people are on our side. The American people think that it makes no sense to cut Medicaid in a way that they鈥檙e proposing to do it. And that doesn鈥檛 mean they won鈥檛 do it, but I think we鈥檝e got to fight as hard as we can to try to stop it.鈥�
He said Republicans鈥� numerical advantage made for a considerable obstacle for Democrats. 鈥淎t the end of the day, they have 53 votes and they can pass it on their own if they want to,鈥� Bennet said.
Republicans have said they aim to make the government more efficient by cutting waste, fraud and abuse. Rep. Gabe Evans, who represents Colorado鈥檚 8th district, for example, told CPR last month, the program can be what he called lawful beneficiaries.
The patient perspective
Gipson said she retired after 35 years at Xcel Energy in 2022 and 鈥渇ound myself uninsured.鈥�
She got sick with what she thought was bronchitis, went to the emergency room and was told she was in active heart failure. That same year, her niece was murdered.
鈥淚 was told that what I had was broken heart syndrome and partly hereditary,鈥� Gipson said. 鈥淎fter the situation with my niece, the stress, PTSD, I couldn鈥檛 sleep. I couldn鈥檛 eat. I had lost over 50 pounds.鈥�
Doctors told her they needed to get her condition under control. Staff helped her get enrolled in Medicaid; she is now on a list for a heart transplant.
鈥淭he hospital enrolled me, because in April of last year I didn鈥檛 have any insurance and they were like, 鈥榳e want to help you,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was a godsend.鈥�
Another patient, Veronica Montoya, said she suffers from diabetes, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and long COVID.
鈥淚 basically live in a pain body,鈥� she said, crediting her community health center as a hub connecting her to a myriad of specialists that range from rheumatology to neurology to dental, and most importantly, mental health services.
鈥淚 know that Medicaid saved my life,鈥� Montoya said.
The budget bill includes for Medicaid and expands them for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Republicans see it as a way to create savings; Democrats say it鈥檒l cause millions of Americans to lose coverage.
Twenty-six-year-old Diana Corona says she was overweight and got help at the Denver Health Bariatric Center with Medicaid coverage. 鈥淢edicaid has saved me. And it鈥檚 never been like, 鈥極h, I鈥檓 ashamed to have Medicaid,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚 am proud to have it, because I can always say that Medicaid saved my life. I am privileged because I now see a future.鈥�
Corona said her weight rose to almost 300 pounds, causing anxiety and depression and severe pain in her feet. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have the funds to ask for help and I was scared. Especially coming from a Latino family, we do not ask for help even though we should.鈥�
She said she broke that barrier, applied for Medicaid and got the funds she needed.
鈥淚 cannot afford things without Medicaid. I cannot afford living without it. This is why I am here.鈥�
The view from doctors
Doctors described the Medicaid programs鈥� role in bolstering a fragile health care system that can be brutal for those who are uninsured.
Before Medicaid was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, funding for the program was more restrictive.
鈥淚 had a patient who pawned his watch to be able to pay for his blood pressure medications,鈥� said Dr. Rebecca Hanratty, a primary care physician who directs Denver Health鈥檚 ambulatory services.
With Medicaid expansion under the ACA, doctors and nurses started seeing patients they used to never see.
鈥淔ifty-year-old men are the demographic that never comes in for health care, weren鈥檛 a demographic that was typically covered by Medicaid or other programs,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e actually started seeing patients who were able to treat their conditions where they鈥檙e much more treatable.鈥�
She said she worried about 鈥渞edeterminations,鈥� potential new requirements to review paperwork that will make it harder for people to navigate the system.
Hanratty described working with an 86-year-old diabetic, enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare, the program for older Americans. She lost her Medicaid coverage during the 鈥淢edicaid unwind鈥� and saw her health costs skyrocket. 鈥淪o she stopped taking her insulin,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hose are the difficult real-world situations that happen with administrative burden for accessing healthcare.鈥�
Another doctor鈥檚 prognosis was no less dire.
鈥淩educed services would cripple the safety net system. And in specific, I think cripple the emergency department,鈥� said Dr. Stephen Wolf, chair of emergency medicine.
The emergency department gives a unique perspective, allowing someone to see the successes and failure of the primary care, public health and acute inpatient systems, he said.
鈥榃hen any of those fail, there鈥檚 this downstream impact that just cripples our work and our ability to serve our community,鈥� he said.
Wolf described a 50-year-old man who he recently saw, who came in for chest pain and was diagnosed with a heart attack. Digging into his case, hospital staff learned six months earlier, he鈥檇 lost his insurance, lost access to his primary care doctor and ran out of his meds.
鈥淗is hypertension spiraled, causing his heart attack. If we see reduced services, that鈥檚 going to be a story that I could tell every single day,鈥� Wolf said.
Denver Health鈥檚 place in the safety net system
CEO Donna Lynne laid out the role Medicaid plays in keeping Denver Health afloat and caring for a vast population of Coloradans.
It treats more than 125,000 Medicaid patients each year, close to half of its total. Half of all babies born in Denver to moms on Medicaid are born at the hospital. She said one in 10 of the state鈥檚 Medicaid patients come to the hospital, from virtually all of its 64 counties.
鈥淭hey are hardworking, well-deserving people who should be getting health care if only we had a system in America that provided health care for all,鈥� Lynne said. 鈥淲e are, despite the name Denver Health, truly a state provider; two-thirds of our funding at Denver Health comes from the federal government.鈥�
Lynne said last year the hospital got about $500 million in federal reimbursements for treating Medicaid patients. That鈥檚 about .
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