Cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs proposed in President Donald Trump’s budget plan would rapidly push more than 300 financially struggling rural hospitals toward a fiscal cliff, according to researchers who track the facilities’ finances.
The hospitals would be at a disproportionate risk of closure, service reductions, or ending inpatient care, according to a report authored by experts from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research following a request from Senate Democrats, who released the findings publicly Thursday. Many of those hospitals are in Kentucky, Louisiana, California, and Oklahoma, according to the analysis.
Trump’s budget plan, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” contains nearly $800 billion in Medicaid cuts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. House Republicans passed the bill in late May, and it now awaits Senate consideration.
The proposed cuts to Medicaid raise the stakes for rural hospitals nationwide, many of which already operate on razor-thin, if not negative, margins. Diminished reimbursements from the state-federal health insurance program for those with low incomes or disabilities would further erode hospitals’ ability to stay open and maintain services for their communities — populations with more severe health needs than their urban counterparts.
“It’s very clear that Medicaid cuts will result in rural hospital closures,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization.
The Senate Democrats sent a letter to Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and House Speaker Mike Johnson asking them to reconsider the Medicaid cuts.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), one of the Senate Democrats who requested the information from Sheps, in a statement said communities should know exactly what they stand to lose if Congress approves the reductions to Medicaid.
“People will die” if rural hospitals close, he said. “No life or job is worth a yes vote on this big billionaire bill.”