Many rural folks scoff at the idea that Trump-law Medicaid cuts prompted their hospital's planned closure - Entrepreneur Generations

Community Hospital is the only health clinic in Curtis. It will close in 
September. (Community Hospital photo)

A rural Nebraska hospital will close in September, and its CEO tied the closure to President Donald Trump's new Medicaid-cutting budget. "But residents of Curtis — a one-stoplight town in deep-red farm country — aren’t buying that explanation," reports Hannah Knowles of The Washington Post. Curtis resident April Roberts told her, "Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar."

How Medicaid cuts are received in Curtis could indicate a broader trend in rural America "where voters vulnerable to Medicaid cuts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill law are reluctant to blame the president or congressional Republicans who approved it," Knowles explains. "Many people in Curtis have directed their frustration at their hospital system instead of their representatives in Washington."

Curtis is in Frontier County, Neb.
(Wikipedia map)

Some Democrats and health care advocates say the town's hospital closure is "a model of what’s to come for rural hospitals around the country," Knowles writes. "Close to half of rural hospitals nationwide already lose money, and analysts expect Trump’s tax and spending law to add more strain."

Community Hospital, the nonprofit owner of the Curtis Medical Center, "announced on July 2 — one day before the bill’s passage — that a confluence of factors had made its Curtis outpost unsustainable," Knowles reports. "It cited years-long financial challenges, inflation and 'anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid,' the public health insurance program for lower-income and disabled Americans."

Many Curtis residents "know that Trump’s bill will impose work requirements for Medicaid recipients," Knowles writes. "And some think — inaccurately — that the legislation was designed to end Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants."

Although Community Hospital had been losing money for years, the timing of Curtis closure announcement "has stoked suspicions in the town, leaving some residents convinced their health provider was using the president as a scapegoat," Knowles reports.

"Nationwide, far more people oppose Trump’s bill than support it in polling. . . . Even in Curtis, some unease at the Medicaid cuts is percolating," Knowles reports. Brenda Wheeler, a Republican and 2016-Trump voter, told Knowles, "When we talked about making America great again, I don’t think this is what we all had in mind." 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/Jb3QuxP Many rural folks scoff at the idea that Trump-law Medicaid cuts prompted their hospital's planned closure - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet