Letters

How wonderful that, after so long, we finally have emergency care on the South Fork beyond Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

For so long, people who were unfortunate enough to have incurred an injury had to travel west from as far east as Montauk to get help, a nightmare in the summer months when the roads are clogged with visitors to our paradise, and in the winter months when the roads are again clogged, only this time with snow, ice and fog.

But no more — residents can rest easy knowing that expert and timely care is available should they need it.

The only question is, for how long?

I can’t help but wonder if the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that was just passed by those in Washington, D.C., will eventually cause the cutting back and eventual closing of this facility because of Medicaid cuts. All hospitals and clinics, but especially rural ones, depend on Medicaid reimbursements to pay for the care they provide to low-income residents in need. If so, many of those people, our very own “locals,” may soon have no Medicaid insurance.

So, then, who pays when they get injured at home, on the job, on the roads? What do they do, where do they go, when their children spike a fever, develop a rash, cough up blood? Hospitals can’t refuse to treat. The costs are there no matter what, insurance or no insurance. Eventually, money must be produced to pay for rent, staff, supplies, etc., or the care simply won’t be there.

Is this what we’re facing?

I would like to know what our local hospital administrators foresee as a result of this legislation. What are the prospects for health care for the service workers in restaurants, landscaping, cleaning, delivery, retail and office work, agriculture? Are they going to be able to find health care somewhere else, or will they have to go without health care and wait until life-or-death circumstances push them to utilize emergency rooms instead of primary care offices? What will that do to the hospitals? What will that do to the people who need health care and can’t get it?

Is any money being “saved” by this legislation? What happens when the hospital can’t afford to provide? Will they start to cut back until closing is the only solution? Have we come so far only to start moving backward?

Please, someone, shed some light on this. How will this bill save money, how will this bill help people, how will this bill eventually impact rural facilities? How did we let this happen?

And perhaps most importantly, what can we do about it?

MaryAnn Lieberman

Hampton Bays