PEABODY — Rep. Seth Moulton hosted a press conference on the impacts of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on local nursing home residents and providers Thursday afternoon at Rosewood Nursing Home.
“It’s an honor to be here at Rosewood in Peabody, which is one of the top, award-winning, five-star nursing facilities in the entire country, and a place where a lot of people are trying to get their loved ones here in Massachusetts, but there is a massive waiting list to get in because there aren’t enough spaces,” Moulton began.
He continued, “There’s waiting lists at hospitals right now to get people out of hospital beds to get in here, and yet when you talk to the residents and the families and the caregivers, they’re worried that this place could go out of business because of Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid.”
Moulton explained that many people think Medicaid cuts solely affect poor people or people who are able to work but aren’t because “that’s the rhetoric that you hear from President Trump.”
He said that the “reality is that more than six out of 10 seniors in America who live in nursing homes are depending on Medicaid.
“That’s why Medicaid is so important to everybody in America. Everybody is touched by these Medicaid cuts. It’s not just the 13.5 million people who will be kicked off Medicaid in order to give tax cuts to billionaires. It’s every single family member affected by this.”
Moulton introduced Rep. Thomas Walsh, who emphasized that federal decisions can have a “dramatic effect” on the local level, specifically for his constituents in Peabody.
“The tour that we just took here at Rosewood with staff — who do a fantastic job, by the way — really hits home because of the decisions that have been made regarding Medicare, Medicaid and our MassHealth.
“People don’t realize that MassHealth is really part of that federally funded program,” Walsh said. “It is administered through the state, and there are people who will no longer receive the benefits that they have been receiving, and now they have to figure out what to do and how they’re going to care for their loved ones.
“It is scary. It’s real, and we all need to realize that every decision that’s being made has an impact on our families right here.”
Moulton then said he learned from the Rosewood staff that the “Big, Beautiful Bill” changes the retroactive reimbursement protocols.
“You used to be able to get three months of retroactive payments because it can often take four months to simply get a Medicaid application approved,” Moulton said.
“Well, now that’s down to one month — and why did Republicans reduce it from three months to one month? Just so that they can fund tax cuts for billionaires,” he said.
Rosewood Executive Director Stephanie Bruno spoke on the direct impacts she has noticed for the Peabody facility.
“What we’re seeing currently, prior to this big bill, was MassHealth not covering the full amount of the care that we provide for folks who live in this building. Roughly 82 cents on the dollar is covered, so that’s approximately $47 per patient per day that we are already losing outside of this bill,” Bruno said.
“The biggest concern is that gap widening for the coverage for the care that is actually happening,” she said.
Bruno said it was of utmost importance to her and Rosewood that the residents continue to receive “the best quality care.” She added that “it is estimated $3.5 billion is going to be lost in MassHealth funding for nursing homes each year.”
Bruno is not yet sure how those cuts will affect Rosewood since “the future is very uncertain.”
When asked what can be done to stop these cuts, Moulton simply said, “Democrats need to win.
“This didn’t used to be political. I was talking to the residents (at Rosewood), and I said, ‘I hate to sound political or partisan about this because Medicaid used to always be bipartisan, and yet now it’s not. Now it’s a political cudgel that Republicans are using against some of the most vulnerable Americans,’” Moulton said.
He continued, “That’s why I spend so much time not just here in Massachusetts but working to make sure Democrats win across the country so that we can take back the house in the midterms (and) put a stop to these really gutless cuts to the social safety net that so many Americans depend on.”
Moulton noted that some Republicans who voted in favor of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” “privately regret this” and “privately know that they did the wrong thing, that they’re not serving their constituents, that the only person they’re serving is Donald Trump, and yet they have absolutely no courage to just do the right thing for the people who they represent.
“It’s a total lack of political courage because we’re all just scared of the guy in the oval office.”
Moulton was then asked what Democrats can do now, rather than just waiting for the next election cycle.
“One of the most important things we’re doing – this is why Rep. Walsh and I are here today – is just explaining this to the American people, to voters, to people who actually believe what the president is saying when he calls this a ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’” he responded.
“It’s a big beautiful disaster, that’s what it is — and it’s a disaster for American families, and people need to understand that so that we make the right choices in the midterms and the elections to follow,” Moulton said.
