For 17 years, Ebony Rose has been a discharge planner at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) in Buffalo, N.Y. As a section president in Local 815 of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000, she has also fought a lot of battles.
But, Rose says, this year has brought new challenges. The Trump administration and its yes-men and women in Congress trying to take health care away from millions of people across the country. That includes many in her community.
Rose worries about her patients, the hospital she works for, and her co-workers.
“My number one concern is the patients,” Rose says. “The cost of the ACA premiums is going to increase, which means that people who could previously afford them won’t be able to anymore.”
She was referring to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits, which make health coverage affordable for millions of people. The tax credits will expire at the end of this year unless Congress extends them. Without that help, many of Rose’s patients won’t be able to afford health care, with rates rising by as much as 114%.
Medicaid cuts that are part of the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” will further limit people’s access to health care. Rose worries that the ECMC emergency room will become like a primary doctor’s office for those who’ve lost insurance coverage.
“We are a safety net hospital, which means we don’t shut our doors to anyone,” Rose says. “We treat everyone with respect and kindness, whether you’re homeless or you’re living in a million-dollar home in the suburbs.”
The CSEA section that Rose represents includes licensed practical nurses, emergency room technicians, social workers, physical therapists, and many who work behind the scenes. Altogether, there are hundreds of different jobs.
But as a result of the health care cuts, now many of those positions are at risk.
“We are already facing layoffs and hiring freezes,” Rose says. “We haven’t lost anybody yet, but we were notified two months ago that if we could not get funding, we would be facing the loss of staff members.”
ECMC is a “very labor-friendly organization,” Rose says, even if workers and the administration don’t always see eye to eye. And yet in this case, they are “one hundred percent on the same page.”
“I meet with hospital leadership every month, and we talk about what’s happening,” she says. “What gives us hope and what makes us scared. Our CEO is out there pounding pavement as much as we are, trying to make sure our employees and patients are well cared for.”
Rose says she is hopeful that the federal government shutdown will lead members of Congress to negotiate on health care. And she hopes that the worst consequences of the expiration of the ACA subsidies and Medicaid cuts can still be avoided.
“The goal is always to make sure we have elected officials who are pro-labor and pro-community,” Rose says, “regardless of party affiliation.”