New Jersey healthcare providers are staring at escalating costs if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, an industry organization said.
The New Jersey Hospital Association said in a report released Thursday that the state's hospitals have already absorbed $1.4 billion in funding cuts since the ACA was enacted in 2010 and could suffer another $1 billion in cuts through 2019 if a suitable replacement plan is not enacted. Individual hospitals have incurred funding cuts as high as $74 million from 2010 to 2017, according to NJHA data.
"The impact of repeal without replacement – or restoration of these funding cuts – would be devastating to hospitals and other healthcare providers," Betsy Ryan, NJHA's president and CEO, said in a statement. "So many of the strides we've made in expanding access to healthcare – and in reforming our healthcare system for the future – are now in danger of being walked back."
The NJHA stressed that New Jersey stands to lose $4.4 billion in annual federal matching dollars under the ACA's Medicaid expansion provision if the program is altered. An Obamacare repeal could also result in the state losing 86,400 jobs, according to a recent analysis by the Commonwealth Fund. Healthcare is New Jersey's second-largest job sector with hospitals alone providing $22.7 billion in economic activity to the state, according to the NJHA.
