Chippewa Valley Residents Rally Against Potential Medicaid Cuts

Chippewa Valley residents rallied in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls on Friday, warning of more hospital closures with potential Medicaid cuts.

It’s now been over a year since Hospital Sisters Health System abruptly closed St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls and Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire. Since the HSHS closures, residents across the region have struggled to access the healthcare they need and the remaining hospitals have been overwhelmed.

Potential cuts to Medicaid, known as BadgerCare in Wisconsin, under a new federal budget could threaten even more healthcare facilities. Cyndi Greening, an organizer with Chippewa Valley Indivisible, expressed specific concerns about cuts to the Provider Tax in the budget reconciliation bill. Those cuts could result in millions of people losing access to Medicaid, which would put even more financial strain on rural hospitals.

“The reconciliation bill that’s gone into the senate is much worse than what was approved in the House,” said Greening. “So we are really concerned because even Josh Hawley, Susan Collins, and Jim Justice are all saying it’s going to close 700 rural hospitals.”

She organized Friday’s rallies in an effort to encourage residents to contact their representatives and express their concerns over further healthcare closures.

Chippewa Falls residents in particular have had a difficult time accessing healthcare since the closure of St. Joseph’s Hospital. With no other hospital in the area, the closest place to receive emergency care is now 10 miles down the road in Eau Claire.

While plans for new hospitals in Chippewa Falls and Lake Hallie are in development, they don’t address the short-term problems area residents are struggling with now. The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative is also considering reopening St. Joseph’s in the interim. Those new hospitals could end up running into the same financial issues as the HSHS hospitals as well.

Dr. Rita Simon, a retired family practice physician who used to work out of St. Joseph’s, warned that rural hospitals need those reimbursements to remain operational. “The biggest issue is that because those hospitals treat lower income people who are often on Medicare, when the reimbursement rates get cut the hospitals can’t make it,” she said. “They go into debt. They have to shut down.”

Asked if the new hospitals would be able to operate effectively, Dr. Simon said “I think it will be pretty hard. Those funds are essential to hospitals, especially ones that are taking care of smaller communities and rural areas. They won’t make it.”