Rural Hospitals Brace for Fallout From Medicaid Cuts

Rural hospital associations, medical insurance companies and doctors warn the recent cuts to Medicaid will roil rural communities.

It’s been less than three weeks since Congress passed the “big, beautiful bill” that included drastic Medicaid cuts, but the Oklahoma Hospital Association is already beginning to have hard conversations about how to protect rural hospitals and health care providers.

“We had an announcement of a closure in our hospital just a week ago, and they're coming because part of this is that hospitals have relied on these special Medicaid payments in order to be able to have a bottom line at the end of the year,” Rich Rasmussen, president and CEO of the Oklahoma Hospital Association says.

Rural hospitals and health care systems are disproportionately vulnerable because of the high percentage of patients they treat who are enrolled in Medicaid. Rasmussen says the association will have to budget for $850 million less each year once the cuts are fully implemented, forcing many to cut back on crucial services.

Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association and a board-certified otolaryngologist in Flint, Michigan, says the cuts will force uninsured recipients to delay seeking care or turn to emergency rooms.