Health care experts warn that the GOP megabill could have devastating consequences for Georgia hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, where health care providers rely on funding from Medicaid to sustain their facilities. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
After more than 24 hours of continuous debate, the U.S. Senate has passed the GOP’s signature tax break and spending cuts package, which proponents often refer to as the “big, beautiful bill.” However, critics of the bill warn that provisions cutting Medicaid spending could devastate Georgians’ access to health care, particularly in rural parts of the state.
The heart of the nearly 1,000-page legislation extends and expands the 2017 tax law to keep individual income tax rates at the same level and establishes permanent tax breaks for business investments as well as research and development costs. The tax cuts are estimated to cost nearly $4.5 trillion over 10 years.
The bill also blocks Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and shifts significant costs of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to states for the first time. Sustaining Georgia’s current SNAP program is projected to cost the state $812 million annually.
Because the bill was amended in the Senate, it will have to return to the House for another vote before it can advance to the president’s desk.
Georgia’s two senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, condemned the bill’s passage, and urged members of the House to oppose the legislation.
“The Senate just voted for legislation that will kick millions off their health care, close rural hospitals, and increase health care costs for everyone, all to give billionaires a tax break,” Warnock said in a statement. “Today’s vote is a disappointing reminder that Washington politicians aren’t working for ordinary people.”
Ossoff, who is running for re-election in 2026, also emphasized the impact that the bill’s cuts will have on Georgia’s access to health care across the state.
“This bill is a trillion dollar cut to Medicaid,” he told reporters shortly after the bill passed out of the Senate. “Seventy percent of Georgia seniors in nursing homes are on Medicaid. Half of all births in Georgia are covered by Medicaid. Forty percent of all children in Georgia are covered by Medicaid, and I have been warning for months that this gutting of the Medicaid program puts Georgia seniors, Georgia mothers, Georgia children at risk.”
Reduced access to health insurance coverage is one of the biggest factors opponents of the bill have seized on, and one that could have downstream effects throughout America’s entire health care system. According to a report from KFF Health News, an estimated 310,000 people across Georgia would lose access to health insurance by 2034 under the bill, due to changes the bill imposes on both Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage. That number could rise to 750,000 if Congress allows enhanced tax credits for those insured through the ACA to expire this year.
Health care experts also warn that the bill could have devastating consequences for Georgia hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, where health care providers rely on funding from Medicaid to sustain their facilities.
According to a report from researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, four hospitals in rural Georgia are at risk of reducing services or closing altogether under the megabill: Fannin Regional Hospital in Blue Ridge, Flint River Community Hospital in Montezuma, Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla, and Washington County Regional Medical Center in Sandersville. Three of those hospitals are in districts represented by Republican congressmen who voted in favor of the bill.
Last week, the Georgia Hospital Association signed a letter alongside hospital associations from 13 other states urging Senator Majority Leader John Thune to preserve and strengthen Medicaid in the Senate’s version of the legislation.
“Stable funding is vital not only for serving Medicaid beneficiaries but also for providing care to all patients, including the uninsured, those with commercial insurance, and our seniors and disabled patients on Medicare,” the letter states. “Severe cuts to Medicaid inevitably would lead to cuts in healthcare services for all Americans.”
Though the bill was later amended to include a $50 billion fund to support rural hospitals, critics of the bill worry that the money will not be enough to offset the strain rural providers will face due to sweeping Medicaid cuts. Rural hospitals in Georgia are projected to lose $540 million over the next 10 years, according to a report from the American Hospital Association.
The House is expected to take another vote on the bill this week to meet President Donald Trump’s imposed July 4 deadline for passing the legislation. However, if the House amends the bill further, it will have to return to the Senate for another vote.
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This post was originally authored and published by Maya Homan from Georgia Recorder via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
