VALDOSTA — Health reform bills in the House and Senate pose a serious risk to many South Georgians, say policy analysts and hospital officials.

The American Health Care Act was approved by the House of Representatives May 4. The Senate is mired in a struggle over its own Republican-backed version, with a vote delayed until after the July 4 holiday.

The AHCA would cut $4 billion in Medicaid funding to Georgia during 10 years, according to a policy paper by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit group. Georgia’s southeast region, including Lowndes County, would lose $125 million, the paper claims.

“South Georgia would be hit hard because of a higher reliance on Medicaid,” said Laura Harker, a GBPI policy analyst.

Medicaid represents a significant portion of hospitals’ revenues. A GBPI list of Georgia hospitals considered most “at risk” from proposed deep Medicaid cuts includes Cook Medical Center in Adel. About 14 percent of Cook Medical’s patients rely on Medicaid, said Christopher Dorman, president and chief operating officer of Tift Regional Health System, which operates Cook Medical.

About 25.3 percent of Cook Medical’s revenues come from Medicaid, coming in eighth on a list of Georgia hospitals with the highest share of Medicaid revenue, the policy paper said.

Cook Medical, already losing $2.6 million a year since 2012, closed the county’s only emergency room in February. The ER was the single largest source of losses for the hospital, Dorman said.

South Georgia Medical Center — a larger regional hospital in Valdosta with branches in Lakeland and Nashville — is less dependent on Medicaid, with only 12 percent of its patients relying on the government program, Harker said.

Senate proposals would put a cap on Medicaid, making it more difficult to raise reimbursement rates, she said.

“The state could try to make up the budget difference by raising taxes, etc.,” she said.

Passage of the ACHA would leave 400,000 more Georgians without health coverage, Dormand said.

“This cost-shifts the burden of uninsured patients to hospitals, who see patients regardless of their ability to pay,” he said. “When it comes to crafting this bill, it appears that hospitals and physicians don’t really have a seat at the table.”

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.