Omaha, Neb. (AP) – Tyler Sherman, a nurse in a rural hospital in Nebraska, is used to the aging farmers in the region until they end up in his emergency room.
Since the congress over 10 years has recently planned 1 trillion US dollar over 10 years, he fears that the farmers and the more than 3,000 inhabitants of Webster County could not only lose the emergency room, but also the clinic and the nursing home that are tied to the hospital.
“Our budget depends quite strongly on the Medicaid refund. So if we see a cut, it will be difficult to keep the doors open,” said Sherman, who works in the webster County Community Hospital in the diminutive town of Red Cloud in Nebraska north of the border between Kansas.
If these facilities close, many locals would make their five -minute trip to the webster County Hospital an almost hourly journey to the next hospital with the same services.
“This is a long way for an emergency,” said Sherman. “Some won’t make it.”
Already fighting hospitals would be hit particularly challenging
States and health groups for the health representation warn that the cutting of Medicaid-a Program, which could make millions of low-income and disabled Americans, and for force hundreds to close hundreds.
According to an analysis of the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, which pursues rural hospital closures, more than 300 hospitals were at risk according to the Republican law. Even when the congress drove on the controversial legislative proposal, a health clinic in the southwest of Nebraska Curtis announced on Wednesday that this will be concluded in the coming months, which is partly held responsible for the expected Medicaid cuts.
Bruce Shay from Pomfret, Connecticut, feared that he and his wife could be abandoned. At the age of 70 they are both in good health, he said. However, this probably means that “it will be an emergency” if both have to go to a hospital.
The Day Kimball Hospital is nearby in Putnam, but has faced the latest financial challenges. The CEO of Day Kimball, R. Kyle Kramer, admitted that a draft law of the Senate was adopted on Tuesday -estimated to have the expenditure on Medicaid in rural areas by $ 155 billion over 10 years -would further affect the final result of its rural area. About 30% of daily Kimball patients receive Medicaid advantages, a number that is even higher for certain, critical services such as obstetrics and behavioral health.
“An emergency means that I am 45 minutes to an hour from the next hospital, and that’s a problem,” said Shay. And he and his wife would not be the only ones who had to make this trip.
“I am sure I’m sure of thousands of people who rely on the Kimball hospital of the day. If it is closed, thousands of people would have to go to another hospital,” he said. “This is a huge burden that is suddenly imposed on a hospital system that is probably already thinly stretched.”
Experts say
The rural hospitals have been working on the finance edge for a long time, especially in recent years, since Medicaid payments have continuously decreased under the actual costs to ensure health care. More than 20% of Americans live in rural areas in which Medicaid covers 1 out of 4 adults according to the non -profit KFF.
President Donald Trump’s tax breaks and patterns of 4.5 trillion dollars that was passed on Thursday would worsen the struggles of rural hospitals by cutting an vital federal program that helps the states to finance Medicaid payments to healthcare providers. In order to compensate for the lost tax revenue, the package includes 1.2 trillion US dollars cuts in Medicaid and other programs for social security networks – cuts that only exist and waste in the system.
However, the public outcure via Medicaid cuts led to the Republicans included a provision that the rural hospitals in Rural in the amount of $ 10 billion or a total of $ 50 billion. Many supporters from the rural hospital are cautious that it is not enough to cover the defect.
Carrie Cochran-McClain, Chief Policy Officer of the National Rural Health Association, said that rural hospitals already have difficulty overcoming the profit threshold, and in a recent report by the American Hospital Association, hospitals showed almost 28 billion US dollar in 2023 than the actual costs Treatment of medicaid patients.
“We see rural hospitals across the country, which are really either negative or very small operational margins,” said Cochran-McClain. (*1*)
Kentucky is expected to be hit particularly challenging
A KFF report shows that 36 countries lose 1 billion US dollars or more over 10 years of Medicaid financial means for rural areas as part of the Republican invoice, even with the Rural Fund of $ 50 billion. No state loses more than Kentucky.
The report estimates that the Bluegrass state would lose a whopping 12.3 billion US dollars -almost 5 billion US dollars more than the next state on the list. This is because the invoice ends the unique Medicaid refund system from Kentucky and reduces it to Medicare refund levels.
Kentucky currently has one of the lowest Medicare refund rates in the country. It also has one of the highest poverty rates, which means that a third of its population is covered by Medicaid.
Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, a two -term democrat who was seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said that the legislation will close 35 hospitals in his state and attract reporting on health care for 200,000 inhabitants.
“Half of Kentucky’s children is covered under Medicaid. They lose their cover and they crawl over the next recipe,” said Besear during an appearance at MSNBC. “This will negatively affect every single American’s lives. It will hammer our economy.”
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Haigh reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
