During his speech on Monday before the members of the Rotary Club of Northern Guam, Cruz revealed his plans to free up more beds at GMH and to build a separate Women and Children Medical Center at Oka Point in Tamuning.
Cruz, who is running for governor, noted the success of the Guam Healthcare and Hospital Development Foundation, which plans to build a private hospital. However, regardless of the foundation’s success, he said, the government is still seeking to increase GMH’s capacity to 100 more beds.
The proposed Women and Children Center would have a 50-bed capacity, freeing up 50 beds at GMH, and together, giving Guam the capacity of 100 more hospital beds for the community.
Funding source
In addition, Cruz said because GMH is now fully accredited, the government of Guam will be able to secure funding through a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan to expand GMH by designating the hospital as a “critical access” hospital.
He said by obtaining a critical access designation for GMH, the government of Guam and DoD could work together to further expand GMH and allow for veterans returning from war to be able to utilize GMH as well.
“We’re looking at all the different ways to leverage other federal agencies’ funds and that is the administration, Department of Defense, and the USDA to be able to get the beds that we need in the time that we need it in,” he said.
Healthcare reform
Also on Monday, Cruz issued an executive order, which will bring together industry leaders along with designated elected officials to tackle the issues and possible impacts of the Healthcare Reform Act as it applies to Guam.
The executive order, titled Health Reform Advisory Task Force, will “ascertain, assess, and potentially implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, as amended on Guahan.”
“There are a lot of concerns and questions from all the different segments of the healthcare industry,” Cruz said.
“We’re going to have the full spectrum of the healthcare delivery industry come together and discuss what we can do on Guam to see what best works for us to ensure all of us are going to be able to get the accessible and affordable care that we need and not drive anyone out of the industry.”
Medicaid
Last month, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo wrote to Cruz informing him of the possible increases in Medicaid coverage for Guam. She wrote that Medicaid coverage could nearly double by next year going from $13.7 million to $24 million in federal assistance and by 2019 could approximately reach $58 million.
Cruz said this increase could translate to an estimated 60,000 additional people who will become eligible for Medicaid alone.
However, Cruz said the funding will only be temporarily beneficial. “Eventually the federal government funding wanes off, then the territories or the states are going to be taking a big part of having to find the funds to match it going forward,” he said.
