Republican Medicaid cuts could shutter rural hospitals, maternity care

Rural hospitals across the United States fear massive Medicaid cuts favored by the Republican Party could decimate maternity services or shutter already struggling medical facilities in communities that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump.

Nearly half of all rural hospitals nationwide operate at a deficit, with Medicaid barely keeping them afloat. Already, almost 200 rural hospitals have closed in the past two decades, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rural hospital leaders in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas who spoke to The Washington Post warned that the enormous cuts congressional Republicans are weighing could further destroy limited health-care access in rural America. Proposals to slash up to $880 billion over 10 years — which is expected to be accomplished largely by scaling back on Medicaid — would also impact those who do not rely on the programme but do rely on the medical facilities that are financially dependent on the programme’s reimbursements.

Heart attack and stroke victims may lose crucial time being ferried by ambulance to big-city hospitals, healthcare experts say. Rural nursing homes may vanish, straining families in the poorest of regions. Those who are pregnant may have no choice but to drive long distances for prenatal checkups and to give birth.

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Source: Washington Post, 9 March 2025