Thousands of Puerto Rico residents and mainland legislators, healthcare advocates and labor leaders, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, rallied Wednesday in Hato Rey to underscore the dire need for equitable healthcare funding from the federal government, according to NBC News coverage of the event.
Organized by the Puerto Rico HealthCare Crisis Coalition, the protestors demanded reimbursement changes. Puerto Ricans pay Medicare and Social Security taxes equal to those paid by residents of the fifty states, but the island's Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates are half of those in the states. In fact, it receives up to 70 percent less Medicaid reimbursement than any U.S. state, according to the report.
Due to this reimbursement rates, Puerto Rican physicians are leaving for the mainland at a rate of about 400 per year, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico faces a $72 billion public debt and it is not allowed to file chapter 9 bankruptcy to restructure its debt, according to the report. The situation could turn into a "humanitarian crisis," Antonio Weiss, counselor to U.S. Treasury Sec. Jacob Lew, said at a Senate hearing, according to the report.
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