Page 4 - Chip Kahn News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Congress has until October to avert cuts to a Medicaid program intended to support safety-net hospitals.

It has become as familiar a sight in Washington as the cherry blossoms in spring: lobbyists from the nation's hospitals descending on the Capitol to ask lawmakers to postpone billions in Medicaid funding cuts prescribed by the Affordable Care Act — cuts industry leaders agreed to years ago.

Congress has until October to avert cuts to a Medicaid program intended to support safety-net hospitals that, in practice, improves the bottom lines of other hospitals, too. Hospital leaders say now is not a good time for the cuts — which lawmakers have so far postponed 13 times.

Despite record-high hospital profits and record-low uninsured rates in recent years, the hospital industry again says this is not a good time for cuts.

Hospital leaders say it's not a good time for cuts to Medicaid funding they agreed to under the Affordable Care Act. They want Congress to delay them.