LETTER | Medicare cuts threaten rural seniors, Congress has a solution
As a state senator representing rural communities in southeastern South Dakota and a practicing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist at a critical access hospital, I see every day just how important access to health care is for folks across our state, especially those who rely on Medicare. That’s why I’m so concerned about a proposal from a federal agency to cut payments to the doctors and healthcare providers who care for Medicare patients.
Right now, Medicare reimbursement rates barely cover the actual costs of care. If these proposed cuts go through, it’ll only make things harder for providers, and some may have no choice but to stop accepting Medicare patients altogether. Lack of access to essential healthcare services would be devastating, especially in rural areas where there are already too few providers to serve the growing number of seniors. Reduced reimbursement rates for Medicare impact our entire population, not just our seniors. With the cost of providing service in rural areas rising, it could force facilities to close and medical providers to move their practice where they can make a living. It’s a prescription for a healthcare crisis.
Thankfully, there’s a solution on the table. The bipartisan Medicare Patient Access and Stabilization Act (H.R. 10073) is a bill in Congress that would stop these harmful cuts from taking effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Even better, it would provide a small but meaningful increase in Medicare reimbursement rates, helping providers stay afloat and ensuring patients can keep seeing their doctors closer to home.
We can’t let these cuts go through. Passing H.R. 10073 would protect access to quality, affordable care for Medicare patients—and even improve it. Congress needs to act during the “lame duck session” to get this done, and they should also look at a long-term fix, like an inflation-based update to Medicare payment rates, so we’re not back in this position again.
Let’s make sure our elected officials, including Sen. John Thune, hear how important this is. I encourage each of you to reach out to Sen. Thune, Sen. Mike Rounds, and Congressman Dusty Johnson to voice your support for keeping rural medical care healthy. Seniors and other Medicare patients deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing they can get the care they need. Together, we can make sure they don’t lose that.
Sen. Sydney Davis
District 17
Burbank, SD
Access to healthcare is a critical issue for all Americans--with Medicare on the chopping block of the incoming Republican leadership, folks are worried. Some call for medicare for all or a single payer system and a shift away from healthcare as a for profit business. There is no denying healthcare in America is the most expensive in the industrialized world and has the worst outcomes. The murder of UHG's executive is generating little sympathy given that UHG denies some 36% of claims and those denials are part of a "proprietary" AI software system that is seeing a roughly 90% error rate.
Those denials on top of net income of over 23 billion in 2023 and a lawsuit that accuses executives of selling off stock prior to the public announcement of said lawsuit and the subsequent stock price drop. Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of bankruptcies are due to medical debt. I'm sympathetic to providers, but until we tackle the disaster that is healthcare in the US, especially with people saying it's time to cut medicare and medicaid and social security because "we can't afford it" when it's generating record profits, something has to give.
"Right now, Medicare reimbursement rates barely cover the actual costs of care..."
I know of no healthcare facility that went bankrupt because Medicare reimbursement caused it to go under...
In fact, some years ago, the CEO of a heart hospital in Sioux Falls told our local medical society (he was invited as a speaker) that their facility "made enough from Medicare" to always accept Medicare patients...
This is just another unproven and indefensible gaslighting mantra by physicians parroting their professional organization's talking points...