Billions in Medicaid funding could be slashed to finance tax cuts if a Republican-passed House budget blueprint comes to fruition. That could leave states and a number of programs relying on Medicaid dollars in the lurch — including an organization in Easthampton, Massachusetts, that's helped people with disabilities for decades.
Every day, a fleet of transportation vans drives in and out of one of the city's biggest former mill complexes - transporting some 140 individuals from across the valley to Riverside Industries.
Spanning multiple floors, Riverside goes back to 1968 – tracing its origins to a group made up of concerned parents of children with disabilities and a local priest. It's since grown into an organization devoted to "empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities," providing day services, educational programming and more.
There are also opportunities for job training.
“These folks are working on job training, and they're actually doing the tasks that the people who we support in our employment department do at UMass,” says Kyle Schaller, Riverside's Director of Community Based Day Services, giving a walk through of one of Riverside’s employment services offerings. “There’s [about] 40 people employed by UMass, and we have some small crews, and we also have coaches that stay with them, to help when it gets maybe a little fast, when that rush is happening.”
Demonstrating for reporters on Tuesday, March 18, is a group of men and women going through and sorting utensils in a space resembling a dining common - complete with a kitchen complex.
Riverside Industries President and CEO Dr. Lynn Ireland adds that five other clients work at Westfield State, while another five work at Amherst College’s dining room.
According to Schaller, the adults enrolled in Riverside's programming span the Pioneer Valley - over 30 towns and cities, with ages ranging from individuals in their early 20s or younger to some in their 70s.
Supporting them is a team of over a hundred therapists, van drivers and other staff, according to Riverside’s LinkedIn page – providing “industrialized services to over 160 clients throughout Western Massachusetts.”
Funding the operation, is, in-part, around $7 million intended for program services, says Ireland.
However, with massive cuts to Medicaid on the table in Washington – and Massachusetts relying heavily on federal reimbursements for MassHealth, its Medicaid program – Riverside would have to scale back.
“If they took $7 million and they cut 50 percent - that's a problem,” Ireland told WAMC during a phone interview. “We would not be able to serve all of the people we serve today and then the question is, what happens to them? Where do they go? Some of the people we serve - they're older, they may be in their 60s, maybe in their 70s. Even younger people; their parents aren't here anymore; their parents have passed, they don't have a guardian, necessarily. They live in … a group residence, and then they come to us during the day. There is no home for them to go to."
Georgetown University estimates 45 percent of the federal funding sent to Massachusetts is for Medicaid – about $11.2 billion annually, says a factsheet from the university’s McCourt School of Public Policy. It adds that the federal government “contributes $1.00 to Medicaid for every $1 Massachusetts invests.”
Riverside does have other sources of revenue – like $1.275 million in contributions in 2023, per its tax filings – but funding from sources like MassHealth makes up the majority of dollars covering expenses like over $6 million in staffing costs last year.
For context, Ireland says, Riverside’s day habilitation program alone is funded through MassHealth to the tune of $2 million.
That money could severely drop off if a budget plan passed by House Republicans succeeds in calling on the Energy and Commerce Committee to shed $880 billion in spending to help fund $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
That $880 billion is likely draw heavily from programs like Medicaid over a decade.
Congressman Richard Neal of the 1st District is one of the House Democrats opposing the plan. Visiting Riverside, Neal toured a network of stations, therapy rooms and spaces for arts, music and exercise. He says if the harshest of cuts came to pass, it’s not clear what alternatives groups like Riverside could expect.
“56 cents on the Medicaid dollar is for long-term care, So here, at Riverside, you could see the good work, whether they're aligning themselves with the University of Massachusetts, for those who can, they're teaching [a] skillset - I thought that the term here, on the wall, where it said “Industries” was just great because it means there's the next chapter,” the congressman said, gesturing to a long wall of Daily Hampshire Gazette news clippings chronicling the non-profit’s history. “But there's also another reality here, and I had experience early in my career - I was active with Goodwill - and I understand what this means: I don't know what the options are in alternatives, for what Medicare and Medicaid do here.”
Neal’s office says at least 330,000 people in his district receive health care through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (which combine to form MassHealth). The office adds that throughout the state, about half of adults relying on said programs could risk losing health coverage due to Medicaid work requirements also being floated.
Ireland says the cuts would be devastating for clients even if they’re spread out over a decade.
“They have wants, they have needs - no different than ours. The challenge is how to help them achieve that, how to give them the best possible circumstances, where they gain acceptance in the community, where they are respected for being a person, where they are included - all key components of what we try to do,” she says. “And so, if there are cuts - the housing gets cut as well - so we'll have a lot of people without services, and that's scary for them, for us and for the system.”
