Medicaid Plan Seen Stripping Millions of Care

Consumers Union testified Tuesday that the huge spending bill before the Senate would strip 12 million Americans of health coverage and close numerous emergency rooms and trauma centers across the country.

The group, which publishes Consumer Reports, told Democratic senators Tuesday that the proposed overhaul of Medicaid would harm consumers of all incomes.

“We assume that states will achieve remarkable efficiencies,” said Stan Dorn, managing attorney for the National Health Law Program and co-author of the report. But they will still be forced to end coverage for 12 million because federal money and state matching funds will be exhausted, he said.

Dorn predicted the closing of emergency rooms based on the experience of California, which cut Medicaid in the 1980s. “Because federal law forbids denying emergency care to the uninsured, hospitals could avoid financial harm only by closing emergency rooms and trauma centers,” he said.

Senate Republicans said the study was flawed and inaccurate.