00:00Mr. Governor, we saw yesterday the proposal coming out of the Senate Finance Committee when it comes to Medicaid and what it did to the provider tax, cutting it significantly.
00:10What do you think this would mean for Pennsylvanians?
00:12And when it comes to the budget, how much of a wrench does this throw when it comes to projections and numbers with the uncertainty at the federal level?
00:20Well, let's just say the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are both now negotiating a bill that has the sort of same basic contours.
00:27They would slash funding for Medicaid and SNAP and use those dollars to be able to give tax cuts to those at the highest income levels.
00:38In addition to that, they would slash the tax credits that are there creating jobs in Pennsylvania around renewable energy and alternative energy sources.
00:48All of that would be bad for Pennsylvania.
00:51All of those cuts would be bad for Pennsylvania.
00:53The House bill that passed by one vote, so each and every member of the delegation here in Pennsylvania who voted for it was the deciding vote, would knock 510,000 Pennsylvanians off of Medicaid and penny, 310,000 specifically off of Medicaid.
01:11140,000 Pennsylvanians would lose food assistance.
01:16I've got 25 rural hospitals right now that are operating at a loss, operating at a deficit that rely extensively, almost a majority of their funding coming through public payers like Medicaid.
01:30They would likely shutter if these cuts went into place over time.
01:35So rural hospitals are going to lose out.
01:37Half a million Pennsylvanians are going to lose health care.
01:40140,000 Pennsylvanians are going to lose food assistance.
01:45And you would think that the Senate would see that, the Senate of the United States would see that and go, well, we don't want to inflict that kind of pain on the people of Pennsylvania, the people across this country.
01:56Let's figure out a way to do that better.
01:59And instead, they made it worse.
02:01This Senate bill would knock more people off of health care, make it harder for more people to get access to food, make it harder for our rural hospitals to be able to survive.
02:12I'm hopeful that our senators at the end of the day will understand this and not allow this bill to go forward and work on legislation that's not going to be punitive, that's not going to harm people here in Pennsylvania when it comes to accessing food and medicine and health care.
02:30I'll also tell you that one of the rhetorical points, I've heard this from some of your congressmen here in Pennsylvania, is, well, we're not knocking anybody off of health care.
02:40We just want to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse.
02:44You all have heard them say this.
02:46By the way, I'm for getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse.
02:48So is our state inspector general.
02:50So is our Department of Human Services.
02:52In fact, we lead the nation when it comes to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.
02:58So if they want to help us root out waste, fraud, and abuse, great.
03:01I'd love some help on that.
03:02And we'll do an even better job, even though we're leading the nation now.
03:06But don't give me this nonsense where you're going to try and justify knocking a half a million Pennsylvanians off of health care and say it's because of waste, fraud, and abuse.
03:15Here's the other thing they say.
03:17They say, well, we don't want health care going to people who are undocumented.
03:23They have a different word for those who are undocumented.
03:26Let me also explain something.
03:28Here in Pennsylvania, the law does not allow Medicaid to be used for those who are undocumented.
03:35So their rationale for this is all BS.
03:39You'll excuse me, Irene, but it is total BS.
03:43What they're really doing is knocking a whole bunch of people off of health care, taking a bunch of food away from folks in the name of giving a tax cut to those who, quite frankly, don't need it right now.
03:54Okay, that's wrong.
03:57And we've got to stand up against that.
03:58And I'm going to continue to speak out against that.
04:00And I hope cooler heads will prevail in the United States Senate.
