VALHALLA — As a safety net facility, patients at Westchester Medical Center (WMC) access hospital services regardless of their ability to pay.
Those services are vast. WMC is the only Level I trauma center between New York City and Albany. The hospital also offers a burn center, organ transplant program, the highest level neonatal intensive care unit, a stroke center and a separate children’s hospital.
With the current federal administration promising $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, there are serious concerns that federal Medicaid funding will suffer massive cuts.
“If we see major cuts in federal Medicaid funding, I am very concerned about our ability to deliver these services,” said CSEA Westchester Medical Center Unit President Sue Fontana. “In addition to the emergency services we provide, our hospital has outpatient clinics that operate largely because of Medicaid funding. If we see huge Medicaid cuts, there are people who may go without needed medical care as a result.”
Fontana said that WMC’s current resources allow the hospital to be a leader in health care. It isn’t uncommon for the hospital to make headlines for trailblazing surgeries and other medical procedures.
Most recently, the hospital was featured in an exclusive story on “Good Morning America” after a surgeon there performed the first ever successful mid-delivery open-heart surgery on an infant, performed in under two minutes while the baby was still connected to his mother via the umbilical cord.
Whether it’s pioneering surgeries or routine medical care, the services provided at WMC are available without the financial roadblocks many patients face when using other hospitals in the region, roadblocks that simply aren’t a factor for the billionaires who will reap the benefits of the current tax cut proposals that will be funded by slashing Medicaid.
— Jessica Ladlee
