The Nevada Independent: “‘One big beautiful bill’ would batter rural hospital finances, researchers say”
Donald Trump and Republicans’ budget bill that cuts Medicaid and other federal health programs in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires is poised to devastate two of Nevada’s rural hospitals. Battle Mountain General Hospital and Humboldt General Hospital are two of more than 300 financially struggling rural hospitals that are at risk of closure or cutting critical services due to Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid.
Trump’s cuts to Medicaid would rip health care away from roughly 100,000 Nevadans. The Assistant GOP Nevada Senate Leader said cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare are “fair game” as part of Republican efforts to pass Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations.
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The Nevada Independent: ‘One big beautiful bill’ would batter rural hospital finances, researchers say
- 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.
- Trump’s budget plan, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” contains nearly $700 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.
- Hospitals that do stay afloat likely will do so by cutting services that are particularly dependent on Medicaid reimbursements, such as labor and delivery units, mental health care and emergency rooms. Obstetric services are among the most expensive and are being eliminated by a growing number of rural hospitals, expanding the areas that lack nearby maternity or labor and delivery care. Iowa, Texas and Minnesota had the most rural obstetrics service closures between 2011 and 2023, according to the health analytics and consulting firm Chartis, which also studies rural hospital finances.
- Nearly half of rural hospitals are operating in the red and 432 are vulnerable to closure. Medicaid cuts would push them further into financial peril.
- That vulnerability stems at least partly from rural Americans’ being more likely to depend on Medicaid than the general population. For instance, nearly 50 percent of rural births are covered by the program, compared with 41 percent of births overall. But Medicaid covers only about half of what private insurance reimburses for childbirth-related services. Rural health systems have been struggling to meet the needs of their communities without the cuts to Medicaid, which brings in $12.2 billion, or nearly 10 percent of rural hospital net revenue, according to a Chartis report from May.
- Hospitals in rural areas would collectively lose more than $1.8 billion with a 15 percent cut to Medicaid. That loss in revenue is roughly equivalent to 21,000 full-time hospital employees’ salaries.
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