UPDATE, 12:25 PM: The Senate passed the megabill which includes cuts to Medicaid on July 1.
A group of doctors and other medical professionals gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Binghamton on Monday, to protest cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s tax and spending bill.
Medicaid is the public insurance program that covers more than 70 million low income Americans.
Dr. Mark Walker was one of the physicians at the walkout. He said many people won’t be able to afford routine office visits if Congress passes the cuts.
“They don’t go until they get sick and they end up in the emergency room. And emergency room care costs ten times what office care costs," Walker said. "The cost of medical care will go up because people will be relying on the emergency room for their basic care."
Walker said rural hospitals will close, forcing doctors to leave and putting more pressure on urban health care systems to care for more people.
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed people using both Medicaid and Medicare Part D over 17 months. Medicare Part D provides low cost prescription coverage for people 65 and older. It concluded that without the federal assistance, 4 percent to 22 percent of patients in the study were likely to die during the 17-month period.
Walker thinks the impact of the proposed Medicaid cuts will affect everyone.
“Even if it doesn’t affect someone personally because they have private insurance, it’s going to affect healthcare in the entire country. And people are going to suffer and people are going to die,” he said.
About two-thirds of Broome County residents rely on Medicaid. The Senate passed the bill, 51-50 on Tuesday afternoon after an overnight session to vote on a long list of amendments.