Health and Science

GOP health-care bill 'threatens financial viability of a lot of hospitals': Cleveland Clinic CEO

Key Points
  • The latest GOP attempt to repeal Obamacare is going to result in less funding for hospitals, many of which are already cash-strapped, Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove told CNBC.
  • The Senate legislation, the Graham-Cassidy, sets up a block-grant system to allot money to the states.
  • The big problem is that right now 22 percent of hospitals in the U.S. are "running in the red" and 55 percent of the hospitals lose money on the administration of care, Cosgrove said.
Graham-Cassidy bill has not been widely vetted: Cleveland Clinic CEO
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Graham-Cassidy bill has not been widely vetted: Cleveland Clinic CEO

The latest Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare is going to result in less funding for hospitals, many of which are already cash-strapped, Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove told CNBC on Thursday.

The Senate's Graham-Cassidy bill sets up a block-grant system to allot money to the states. A majority of state governments would take a multibillion-dollar hit from the proposal, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The big problem is that right now 22 percent of hospitals in the U.S. are "running in the red" and 55 percent of the hospitals lose money on the administration of care, Cosgrove said in an interview with "Closing Bell."

"This is going to threaten the financial viability of a lot of hospitals across the country."

The Republican proposal shifts money from one group of states to another. Roughly two-thirds of the states would see a combined loss of more than $250 billion between 2020 and 2026, according to the Kaiser analysis. At the same time, a third of the states would pick up nearly $70 billion in new funding during that four-year period.

Cosgrove said for Ohio, where the Cleveland Clinic is located, it means a reduction of somewhere between $4 billion and $9 billion in Medicaid support.

Republican senators are rushing to pass the bill before a Sept. 30 deadline to use budget rules that would allow them to approve it with only Republican votes. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump for the first time explicitly endorsed the plan and urged his fellow party members to vote for it.

"This has not gotten the chance to be widely vetted, nor do we know for sure exactly how the bill is continuing to change," Cosgrove said.

Plus, the Congressional Budget Office will not have a chance to evaluate the costs and effects of the bill, he added.

— CNBC's Jacob Pramuk and John Schoen contributed to this report.