There are lots of misunderstandings about Medicaid and SNAPS, said Dwayne Heisler, campaign director for the Pennsylvania Policy Center, during the discussion part of the March 11 town hall meeting organized by Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley.

“Those are safety net programs,” Hiesler said. “At some point in their lives, 65 percent of all Pennsylvanians will need that.”

“We don’t know what the proposed cuts will be, but we estimate that in the state of Pennsylvania it will be somewhere between $2 and $4 billion dollars,” he said. “There’s no way the state can pay for that. This is about you, your family’s and your safety net.”

Hiesler said the Pennsylvania Policy Center estimates there will be 750,000 to 1 million Pennsylvanians who will lose their health coverage if cuts are made.

“There are over 168,000 people in this congressional district that are on Medicaid,” he added.

“This is one of the most efficient programs that exist in federal programs,” Hiesler said. “And we have Mark here auditing where these dollars go locally.”

Hiesler turned his attention to hospitals as being at risk due to potential Medicaid cuts and pointed out that many counties in Pennsylvania don’t have hospitals, saying that many have had to close.

“The important part is that your hospital system is at risk as well,” he said, “rural and urban hospitals.”