Protestors fear proposed Medicaid cuts would close Newton hospital

Supporters of Medicaid last week opposed Congress’ budget cuts by protesting outside Newton Clinic and MercyOne Newton Medical Center, which they said could now be in danger of closing or eliminating vital health care services for rural Iowans. The hospital already paused all labor and delivery services in 2024.

Cindy Pollard, of Newton, said everybody she knows since 1999 has been born at the local hospital, known back then as Skiff Medical Center. Her wife was also born there. No babies have been delivered locally since last fall. Jasper County mothers have had to travel at least a half-hour away for a labor and delivery unit.

“They no longer deliver babies here, and it’s where everyone was born,” Pollard said at the protest on May 21. “Our relatives are going to Grinnell to deliver … Everything is against rural Iowa — the schools and Medicaid cuts — everything affects us out here. So that’s why I’m going to start showing up right here.”

Progress Iowa and Social Security Works organized the Hands Off Medicaid rally last week in opposition to the House Republican budget bill. Over a 10-year period, it is estimated almost $700 billion in federal funding will be cut from Medicaid and $500 billion will be cut from Medicare.

Health care advocates say nursing homes and hospitals could feel the financial effects of these cuts. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents Jasper County, voted in favor of the bill. Her decision was a subject of scrutiny by protestors, who felt betrayed considering her background as a physician.

They also criticized a recent social media video in which Miller-Meeks refuses to answer questions from a representative of Social Security Works, a political group that advocates for the expansion of Social Security and for the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations.

In the video, Social Security Works confronts Miller-Meeks saying she lied to their faces when she said she wouldn’t vote for Medicaid cuts.

“But then you’ve actually voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid in the history of the country,” said Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works. “Do you have any comments on that? Do you have any comments on the four hospitals in your district that are gonna close because of your vote?”

Larry Anderson, of Newton, said he attended the rally last week because he would hate to see the community affected by these Medicaid cuts.

“People don’t realize this affects everyone,” he said. “This is not just the so-called ‘idle poor,’ this is our nursing homes and our hospitals. We’ve already lost some OBGYN services, but we don’t need to lose the hospital. And that could very well happen if Medicaid like this.”

Anderson is simultaneously surprised and not surprised by Miller-Meeks voting for the budget bill.

“I think that no doubt she is under a great deal of pressure from her party and her party leadership, but we didn’t elect her to do this,” Anderson said. “We elected her to stand up for us, her constituents. And she’s not doing it if she votes for this.”