GOP coronavirus bill seemingly excludes some nonprofit health care providers from federal assistance

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 23 March 2020

There's a new sticking point in Congress' coronavirus stimulus package negotiations.

Democrats aren't pleased with the Senate GOP's bill, as evidenced by the decision to kill a procedural vote Sunday that delayed a Monday vote. One provision in the bill that stands out, The Washington Post reports, would exclude "nonprofits receiving Medicaid expenditures" from receiving federal small business loans.

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Mara Youdelman, the managing attorney of the the National Health Law Program's Washington, D.C., office, said tens of millions of people rely on such providers, including people in rural areas where health care access can be more difficult. During a pandemic, Youdelman said, there will be a demand in services, and because Medicaid "historically underpays" for them, the providers will need more assistance to stay open. "We should be doing everything possible to keep them in business, both to help manage the pandemic and to keep people needing routine care healthy and out of overwhelmed hospitals," Youdelman said. Read more at The Washington Post.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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