MedPage Today – After President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4, the question remained: How would it impact doctors?
Here are the top ways physicians will be impacted by the law.
Swamped Emergency Departments
Between a decrease in the Medicaid rolls — largely due to the law’s imposition of a federal work requirement — and the expected expiration of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, an estimated 17 million people will lose their health insurance between now and 2034, according to KFF. And for emergency departments (EDs), fewer insured patients equals more uncompensated care.
Joanne Conroy, MD, president and CEO of Dartmouth Health, which provides primary and specialty care throughout New Hampshire and Vermont, said about 10% of New Hampshire residents and one-third of Vermonters are on Medicaid. When patients lose insurance such as Medicaid, they don’t see a doctor and don’t get their medications.
“Their healthcare kind of goes sideways, and they end up in our emergency rooms with healthcare conditions that are much more serious than if they’ve been addressed ahead of time,” Conroy said.
Alison Haddock, MD, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, agreed, telling MedPage Today that the health system isn’t functional if the ED is the only place patients receive care, because patients come to the department potentially much sicker.
Looming Hospital Closures, Layoffs
Over the last decade, a “huge swath” of small hospitals in central New Hampshire have closed their obstetrics departments, Conroy said, and now, with Medicaid cuts looming, some others are beginning to restrict services and lay off physicians …
