
How Could Rural Idaho Be Impacted If Cuts To Medicaid Are Made?
According to research from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, rural communities in Idaho, as well as other states rely heavily on Medicaid for health coverage. That research went on to say that nearly 37% of children in rural Idaho are covered through Medicaid or CHIP, compared with 33% in more urban areas. Despite that, Hillarie Hagen with Idaho Voices for Children said state lawmakers in Boise and federal lawmakers Washington D.C. are considering cuts to the program.
“If lawmakers at the state and federal level go through with the sweeping Medicaid cuts that they're proposing, it's important to know that we all will lose, but our rural areas have even more at stake."
Hagen noted that cuts to Medicaid don't just threaten the people enrolled, but rural hospitals as well.
“Medicaid cuts are going to make it harder for our rural hospitals and small clinics to keep their doors open, which threatens health-care access for everyone.”
The research also says 17% of non-elderly adults in rural Idaho rely on Medicaid, compared with 15.7% in urban areas. More than 26% of Idahoans live in areas considered rural, well above the national average of about 14%.
Click Here to read the entire study from Georgetown University.
Hagen said Idaho legislators want to roll back Medicaid expansion voters passed in 2018.
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