The $500 billion corporate bailout slush fund bill from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and buddies that Democrats rejected Sunday has many, many shortcomings. Not just what it does do (unfettered giveaways to corporate America with no strings attached) but what it doesn't do, like provide funding to state and local governments, or food assistance, or health care, or worker protections, or expanded emergency leave, or adequate assistance to, you know, people. Lurking among all those provisions that aren't helping people is one from our old favorite, Maine Sen. Susan Collins. She and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were responsible for the small business stimulus part of the bill, and included a provision that inexplicably and very specifically excludes nonprofits that get Medicaid funding from receiving any assistance.
The obvious exclusion is Planned Parenthood, Collins' longtime (though no longer) defender. But as Greg Sargent explains, Senate Democrats and aides "think the language means a lot more than" just excluding Planned Parenthood. They pointed out that it "would exclude from eligibility for this funding a big range of other nonprofits that get Medicaid funding, such as home and community-based disability providers; community-based nursing homes, mental health providers and health centers; group homes for the disabled; and even rape crisis centers."
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In other words, groups that are going to be stretched to the limit to provide assistance to some of the most vulnerable members of the community. Many of them are largely funded through their clients' Medicaid, and are historically underpaid for the services they provide. Coronavirus is going to create a surge in demand for these services and potentially put those providers at risk, particularly if they're competing with hospitals and first responders for protective gear.
This provision would "prevent many small Medicaid-funded providers from accessing small business loans," Mara Youdelman, the managing attorney of the National Health Law Program’s D.C. office, told Sargent, noting that rural providers would also be cut out. "We should be doing everything possible to keep them in businesses, both to help manage the pandemic and to keep people needing routine care healthy and out of overwhelmed hospitals," Youdelman said. One such provider is The Arc, an advocacy organization for the disabled. Nicole Jorwic, senior director of public policy for The Arc, told Sargent that "It's a huge problem. […] Our chapters who provide services would all be impacted [making it harder to] provide home and community-based services all over the country."
"The last thing anyone should do in the middle of a public health crisis is restricting access to health care providers that women, people with disabilities, people with substance abuse disorders and more rely on," Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement sent to Sargent.
Meanwhile, Collins is bleating about how "It is essential that Congress stop its partisan bickering & work together to protect workers' paychecks. On the Senate Floor this evening, I implored my colleagues to deliver urgently needed aid for the employees of small businesses throughout our nation." Just not ALL small businesses. Only the ones that might cut her campaign fund a check.
