Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed budget, cutting hospital Medicaid payments by nearly $31.9 million, jeopardizes public health and jobs, according to one medical group.

The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s president and CEO, Carolyn F. Scanlan, said Rendell’s budget could cost $73.4 million in funding to Medicaid to disappear because matching federal funds would be eliminated with state cuts.

“At a time when Medicaid enrollment is increasing and more people are losing health insurance due to unemployment, payments to hospitals who are the health care safety net for these Pennsylvanians cannot be cut,” Scanlan said in a statement.

Budget cuts could mean lost jobs at hospitals who serve those on Medicaid. The association’s membership includes nearly 250 Pennsylvania acute and specialty care, primary care, subacute, long-term care and home health and hospice providers.

“Pennsylvania’s hospitals continue to be the largest and most stable employers in their communities,” she said.

She said the group is “mindful of the budget realities facing Pennsylvania. But the governor and lawmakers need to ensure that hospitals remain viable employers in their communities, where they can provide access to quality care, jobs and job-growth opportunities, support to other businesses, and overall stimulus to local economic activity.”

She said the potential infusion of about $850 million in additional federal Medicaid dollars necessitates that the money be used for “its intended purpose – to ensure continued patient access to hospital care—and not diverted to fill holes elsewhere in the state budget.”