Medicaid cuts in 'Big Beautiful Bill' put 3 Long Island hospitals at risk, study says

WASHINGTON — Three Long Island-based hospitals are among 45 in New York State and 446 nationwide at risk of reducing services or even closing due to Medicaid cuts imposed by President Donald Trump’s tax-cutting budget package known as The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a new study shows.

Mercy Medical Center, Nassau University Medical Center and Stony Brook University Hospital are identified as being among those most in jeopardy from what the Congressional Budget Office says will be a $911 billion cut in federal spending on Medicaid and lower-cost health insurance for children (CHIP) over the next 10 years under the bill passed last year.

"The cuts will be devastating to many low-income and disabled individuals who rely on Medicaid," the analysis from the progressive government watchdog group Public Citizen says. "Moreover, they will have knock-on effects on hospitals that disproportionately serve these communities, deepening the financial strain already plaguing rural and safety-net hospitals and compromising their ability to deliver care, potentially leading many to close."

The analysis does not flat-out predict that the hospitals it identifies on Long Island and elsewhere will close. But it does list them at "heightened" risk of shutting down, reducing the medical services they provide, or laying off workers because of the Medicaid cuts imposed by the OBBA.

Without asserting any political blame, Thomas Stokes, CEO of Nassau University Medical Center, said NUMC "is deeply concerned about the impact of potential Medicaid cuts on safety-net hospitals and the communities we serve."

Medicaid is a health insurance program that generally covers children under the age 18 from families with low and moderate incomes, pregnant women and other parents with low and moderate incomes, and individuals with disabilities.

It is funded jointly by the federal government and the states. Eligibility in New York is defined more broadly than in many other states, with Medicaid enrollment second only to California, at about 7 million, according to the state comptroller’s office. Federal Medicaid spending in New York during the state’s 2025 fiscal year totaled $69.2 billion, out of a total of $115.6 billion.

The concerns reported in the Public Citizen analysis come as some of the most significant potential impacts of the nearly $1 trillion in OBBBA Medicaid cuts have yet to be phased in. Those include work requirements for many recipients in 2027 and new caps on reimbursements for extra state direct payments in 2028.

But already, Trump has started to suggest even deeper Medicaid cuts and greater state responsibility. 
Currently, Medicaid covers about one-fifth of all hospital spending nationally, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. New York and four other states — Connecticut, California, Massachusetts and Washington — each have over a quarter of all their hospitals at risk because of the cuts, the Public Citizen study says.

"Medicaid is essential to providing care for vulnerable patients and sustaining hospitals like NUMC," Stokes said in a statement. He added, "Reducing Medicaid funding would significantly strain providers, limit access to critical services, and disproportionately harm low-income patients, seniors, and people with disabilities."

A statement provided by Stony Brook Medicine officials said that as Suffolk County's only academic medical center and Level 1 Trauma Center for both adults and children, "we remain committed to delivering high-quality care and there are no disruptions to any hospital services.

"Hospital leaders continuously monitor the state of affairs on the federal level to make informed decisions that support the patients we serve and our community," the statement added. There were no immediate responses to requests for comment from Mercy Medical Center.

Kenneth E. Raske. president and chief executive officer of the Greater New York Hospital Association, did not want to speak on the report’s identification of specific medical institutions at risk from the cuts. But he said when fully implemented, they could amount to billions of dollars in impacts for hospitals.

"As you get to Medicaid cuts, he said, "financial exposure increases so immensely that it doesn’t take much to put you over the edge." He added the results could be "devastating," ranging from not just people going without basic health care who can’t afford it, but also thousands of medical and hospital jobs being impacted.

"It’s time to hit the pause button," he said of the scheduled reductions.

The trio of Long Island hospitals that are listed in the study as vulnerable have more than 1,200 beds collectively. Of those, Stony Brook University Hospital is the only one in a district represented by a Republican who voted for the OBBA, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville).

LaLota at events and online describes the OBBA’s passage as the most significant tax relief for the middle class in a generation — including its raised cap on State and Local Tax deductions (SALT). He criticized the Public Citizen’s analysis.

"The non-partisan truth: No senior, child, pregnant woman, or person with disabilities is losing Medicaid because of this bill. Not one," LaLota said in a statement. "What we did is simple and reasonable."

LaLota said Congress has had to fix one unintended consequence involving calculations to Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments, which would have led to reductions in disbursements in that category to support safety-net hospitals such as Stony Brook. But the "real problem," he said, is that "New York spends more per Medicaid enrollee than almost any state, yet hospitals are struggling and providers are underpaid."

"Albany has expanded Medicaid beyond sustainable levels, spent billions on coverage for those here illegally, and failed to enforce basic oversight," he said. 

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre), who opposed Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, has a different view.

"Working families, seniors, and those who need care most on Long Island will suffer because of Washington Republicans’ cruel Medicaid cuts," Gillen said in a statement when asked about the Public Citizen report.

"Our hospitals are already straining to keep up as more patients overwhelm their emergency rooms, while services and specialized care are threatened," Gillen added. 

In its methodology, Public Citizen said it used hospital financial data from 2022 through 2024 available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The report dubbed hospitals to be at risk if 20% or more of their revenue from 2022 through 2024 came from Medicaid or other so-called low-income government program payers, and have been operating at a net loss in recent years.