West Virginia health care advocates spoke out against proposed cuts to the federal Medicaid program during a virtual press conference on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (Protect Our Care | Courtesy photo)
West Virginia health care advocates say proposals to cut trillions in federal funding for Medicaid would close rural hospitals and worsen the state’s maternal and infant health care “crisis,” among other things.
Protect Our Care, a national non-profit organization aimed at protecting health care for Americans, hosted the news conference Friday with representatives from West Virginians for Affordable Care and Planned Parenthood.
According to health policy research organization KFF, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering policy changes to cut the federal Medicaid budget by $2.3 trillion. Proposals include making Medicaid a block grant program, reducing the federal matching amounts, putting caps on the amount of spending per person and imposing work requirements for the health care program.
“These proposals would blow an estimated $235 million hole in West Virginia’s state budget and leave tens of thousands of people uninsured,” Ellen Allen, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care said Friday.
As of October, more than 472,000 West Virginians were enrolled in Medicaid. The joint state and federal health care program covers 72 million Americans. The federal government currently pays about 74% of the state’s spending on Medicaid, according to KFF.
Drew Galang, a spokesman for West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday the governor is still reviewing state budget items, which he has said faces a $400 million deficit, and has not outlined any specific proposals.
Medicaid helps fund West Virginia’s rural hospitals, Allen said, by helping to ensure that patients can pay for their care. Rural hospitals in states that have expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act are less likely to close, she said. If Congress cuts Medicaid expansion, more rural hospitals will be forced to close, she said.
“Gutting Medicaid will take health care away from hardworking families across West Virginia, instead of helping them,” Allen said. “They deserve better. We deserve better. It is within our power to do so.”
Kaylen Payne, health policy analyst for Planned Parenthood, said if Medicaid funding is cut, West Virginia’s already poor outcomes in maternal and infant health care would worsen, and pregnant people and newborns would suffer.
“Half of West Virginia counties currently lack suitable maternal and infant health care, with entire counties with no birthing hospitals,” she said. “The state’s laws have made the reproductive health care desert, facing the people of this state worse, with doctors fleeing in fear of losing their license for providing life saving care to their patients, these laws increase the rates of maternal and infant mortality disproportionately impacting minority communities.”
In 2024, the nonprofit maternal care organization March of Dimes gave West Virginia an “F” grade and ranked it 50 out of 50 states for its number of preterm births. More than 13% of the state’s birth were pre-term in 2023, a rate that’s increased over the last 10 years and is higher than the national average of 10.4%.
West Virginia’s minority population is particularly affected by the state’s poor maternal and infant health outcomes. Black babies are 1.3 times more likely than others to be born preterm, according to the March of Dimes.
If Medicaid funding is cut, “an already quickly deteriorating problem will become nothing short of catastrophic,” Payne said. “Deadly prenatal diseases like preeclampsia and gestational diabetes will go unnoticed, and maternal and infant mortality rates will skyrocket.”
Lynette Maselli, state director of Protect Our Care, called Medicaid a “lifeline.”
“It’s kept people employed and rural hospitals open, as well as boosting state budgets,” she said. “But Republicans continue to target Medicaid for deep cuts in order to fund tax breaks for millionaires. As a result, families, children and seniors won’t be able to see a doctor when they need it most. If the GOP gets its way, millions of Americans will lose critical health care coverage they need to stay healthy.”
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