Rural Hospitals Brace cuts $1 trillion Medicaid with “big, beautiful bills”

The council is making plans now $1 trillion in Medicaid cut For more than a decade, he fears that those farmers and more than 3,000 residents of Webster County will lose not only ER but clinics and nursing homes linked to hospitals.

“Our budgets rely heavily on Medicaid refunds, so it’s hard to open the door when you see those cuts,” said Sherman, who works at Webster County Community Hospital in Red Cloud, a small town in Nebraska, just north of the Kansas border.

If these facilities get close, many locals will see a five-minute trip to Webster County Hospital.

“It’s a long way to go for an emergency,” Sherman said. “Some don’t make that.”

Hospitals that are already struggling will be hit particularly hard

State and rural health advocacy groups warn that Cutting Medicaid – The program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans has been able to ravage hospitals in the already fragile country, shutting down hundreds, and cornering some people in faraway areas without nearby emergency care.

There could be over 300 hospitals There is a risk of closure Under the Republican bill, it tracks rural hospital closures, according to an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Even if Congress haggles the controversial bill, the health clinic in Curtis, southwestern Nebraska town, announced Wednesday it will close in the coming months.

Bruce Shay of Pompfret, Connecticut, fears that he and his wife will be among those remaining in a hurry. At 70, they are both healthy, he said. But that probably means that if either of them needs to go to the hospital, it will be “an emergency.”

Daykinball Hospital is located near Putnam, but faced Recent financial challenges. Day Kimball CEO R. Kyle Kramer acknowledged that the Senate bill passed Tuesday is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by $155 billion over a decade. Approximately 30% of Kimball’s current patients per day receive Medicaid benefits. This is even higher for certain important services, such as obstetrics and behavioral health.

“The emergency means I’m 45 minutes to an hour away from the nearest hospital. That’s a problem,” Shay said. And it’s not the only thing he and his wife have to make that trip.

“It’s true that there are thousands of people who rely on Kimball Hospital. If they close, thousands of people will have to go to another hospital,” he said. “That’s a huge load that’s probably suddenly placed on a hospital system that’s already thin and thin.”

Experts say the $50 billion fund for bills for rural hospitals is not enough

There is a rural hospital It was manipulated long at the financial edgeespecially in recent years, Medicaid payments have been continually below the actual costs of providing healthcare. According to the non-profit KFF, more than 20% of Americans live in rural areas, and Medicaid covers one in four adults.

President Donald Trump $4.5 trillion tax cuts and spending reduction bill; Passed Thursday, this will exacerbate the struggle for local hospitals by cutting down key federal programs that will help states fund Medicaid payments to health care providers. To offset lost tax revenue, the package includes a $1.2 trillion cut in Medicaid and other social safety net programs.

However, public protests over Medicaid cuts have led Republicans to include provisions that provide $10 billion a year to rural hospitals over the next five years, or a total of $50 billion. Many rural hospital advocates are wary of not enough to cover the shortage.

Carrie Cochrane McClain, chief policy officer for the National Rural Health Association, said rural hospitals are already struggling to beat, citing a recent American Hospital Association report that found hospitals in 2023 $28 billion less than the actual cost of treating Medicaid patients.

“We see rural hospitals across the country actually operating at negative or very small operating margins,” Cochrane McClain said. “Reducing to payers, particularly payers like Medicaid, which make up a significant portion of the funds of rural providers, means it will affect the rural hospital’s ability to provide specific services, or to keep doors open at the end of the day.”

Kentucky is expected to be hit particularly hard

a KFF Report Even with a $50 billion rural fund, it shows 36 states that have lost more than $1 billion in rural Medicaid funds under the Republican bill for over a decade. You won’t lose anything more than Kentucky.

The report estimates that Bluegrass State will lose a whopping $12.3 billion. That’s nearly $5 billion more than the next state on the list. That’s because the bill will end Kentucky’s unique Medicaid refund system and reduce it to Medicare reimbursement levels.

Kentucky currently has one of the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the country. Additionally, Medicaid covers a third of the population, as it has the highest poverty rate.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Besher, a two-term Democrat who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said the bill would close 35 hospitals in his state and elicit health care coverage for 200,000 residents.

“Half of the kids in Kentucky are eligible for Medicaid. They’ve lost coverage and you’re scrambling your next prescription,” Besher appeared on MSNBC. “This will affect the negative lives of all Americans. It’s going to attack our economy.”