Helping Rural Hospitals

We know that failure to expand Medicaid is hard on small rural hospitals. They are forced, out of kindness, into the position of providing services for hard-working folks who have no insurance and therefore taking a loss.

An April 13, 2022 article by Liz Carey in the Daily Yonder points out that their precarious financial position goes beyond our egregious failure to expand Medicaid: Nearly half of rural hospitals lose money on childbirth services. Rural families are more often on Medicaid than families in urban areas. Medicaid does not fully cover the hospital’s cost, so they are still losing money. Many rural hospitals keep childbirth services open, even in the face of a negative balance sheet, because they know how important the services are to the community.

Further, closing childcare services has a domino effect: After they close, other services close, and soon, the entire little hospital is closed. The community not only loses access to medical care, they lose the good jobs that were an anchor for the economic well-being of the community—boarded up main streets follow!

The solution seems obvious: We must work with the stakeholders to make sure outside funding sources ensure that these little hospitals break even. Medicaid Expansion is a necessary first step, but it is the first step!