STAT+: Hospitals plot their response to funding cuts
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- Hospitals had wanted to lobby Congress for increased government payments, new reimbursement incentives, and less regulatory red tape, per Daniel Payne's reporting for STAT.
- Instead, hospitals are now spending much of their time and political capital trying to delay and mitigate roughly $1 trillion in health care spending cuts.
- The $1 trillion in cuts helped pay for Republicans' tax cuts, directly tying the two policy fights together.
Why it matters: Hospitals entered this Congress with an ambitious wish list of higher payments, new reimbursement incentives, and regulatory relief — but the $1 trillion in cuts tied to the GOP tax bill has forced them into pure defense mode, redirecting the entire hospital lobbying apparatus from expansion to survival.
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