Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
I was pleased to read that Sen. Susan Collins opposes the cuts to Medicaid in the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill that was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. I hope she will remain steadfast in her opposition while it is debated in the Senate. She clearly understands well the devastating effects the cuts would have on patients and on care providers, especially rural hospitals.
I don’t think it is widely appreciated that loss of insurance, in addition to being financially ruinous, can cost lives. A letter in The Lancet, a highly regarded medical journal, showed that with the cuts to Medicaid, potential excess deaths could reach 14,660 over a one-year period for people aged 25-64. There would also be very large longer-term effects.
Collins indicated that she may support work requirements for those on Medicaid. I would urge her not to. In the states where they have been tried, they have been shown to necessitate a wasteful bureaucracy that frequently denies coverage to those who actually qualify. This is explained in a guest essay in The New York Times, where it is shown that only 3 percent of those receiving Medicaid benefits are long-term unemployed.
As she studies the big, beautiful bill and reflects on it, the senator may want to consider challenging the assumption that large transfers of resources from the poor to the rich are good for the country. I believe she must know in her heart that they are not.
Michael P. Bacon
Westbrook
