Democrats use new tactic to highlight Trump’s gutting of Medicaid: billboards in the rural US | Medicaid

The road to four rural hospitals in difficulty now houses a political message: “If this hospital closes, blame Trump.”

In a series of black and yellow display panels erected near the installations, the National Democratic Committee (DNC) seeks to inform voters of the deep red states “which is responsible for the evisceration of rural health care”.

“Under the supervision of Trump, Stilwell’s general hospital closes its doors,” shouts a sign. The display panels are outside flint hospitals, Missouri; Columbus, Indiana; Stilwell, Oklahoma; And Missoula, Montana.

The fate of rural hospitals has become a politically controversial question for the Republicans, because the historic cuts pushed by the GOP should come into force during the next decade. Trump’s enormous big Big Beautiful Bill law (OBBBA) has reduced more than 1 t $ in Medicaid, the Public Health Insurance Program for low -income and disabled Americans, ensuring more than 71 million adults.

“Where the real impact will be on people who simply do not get care,” said Dave Kendall, principal researcher for health and fiscal policy on the third way, a center-left defense organization.

“This is what was going on before we have rural hospitals – they do not receive care because they cannot afford it, and they cannot go to the hospital.”

In response to criticism, the Republicans added a “50 billion rural health transformation fund” just before the OBBBA passes. The fund should cover approximately a third of the losses that rural areas will face, and around 70% of the losses for the four hospitals where Democrats now have nearby display panels. The rural health fund provides money until 2030, while Medicaid cuts are not linked to time.

It already becomes a political football, as the Democrats have argued in a letter that money is an “melting snow fund” already promised to the main members of the Republican Congress.

“We are alarmed by reports suggesting that these taxpayer funds are already promised to the Republican members of the Congress in exchange for their votes in support of the great ugly betrayal,” wrote 16 Democratic senators in a letter to Dr Mehmet Oz, chief of Medicare and Medicaid of Trump.

“In addition, the vague legislative language creating this fund will apparently work as your personal fund to be distributed according to your political whims.”

Rural hospitals have been under financial tension for more than a decade. Since 2010, 153 rural hospitals have closed or lost services to hospital patients which partly define a hospital, according to the Center for Health Services at the University of North Carolina.

“In the country’s states, hospitals close their doors or cut critical services, and it is Trump’s own voters who will suffer the most,” said DNC president Ken Martin in a statement announcing the display panels.

OBBBA should further exacerbate these financial strains. A recent analysis of the Urban Institute revealed that rural hospitals should see a loss of $ 87 billion over the next 10 years.

“We expect rural hospitals to end accordingly – we have already started to see hospitals like:” OK, how are we going to survive? “” Said Kendall de Third Way.

An analysis of June of the Sheps Center revealed that 338 rural hospitals, including dozens in states such as Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma, could close following the OBBBA. There are nearly 1,800 rural hospitals nationwide, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non -profit organization for health care research.

This prospect was reinforced by the CEO of the National Rural Health Association, Alan Morgan, who, in a recent newsletter, said that 45% of rural hospitals were already operating at a loss.

“When you remove $ 155 billion over the next 10 years, it will have an impact,” he said.

In the fragmented health care ecosystem in the United States, Medicaid is both the largest and the poorest payer of health care providers. Patients benefit from largely at no cost care, but hospitals complain that Medicaid prices do not pay the cost of service, which makes institutions that are disproportionately based on Medicaid less financially. In rural areas, employers’ health insurance rich in benefits is more difficult to find; Therefore, more hospitals depend on Medicaid.

But even if Medicaid pays less than other insurance programs, a certain payment is even better than nothing. Trump’s OBBBA reduction by more than $ 1 to the program in the next decade is expected to result in loss of coverage of nearly 12 million people.

When people who are not insured fall ill, they are more likely to delay care, more likely to use the hospital’s emergency rooms and more likely to fight to pay their bills. In turn, the institutions that serve them also suffer.

“This is what Donald Trump does – screwing people who are counting on him,” said Martin, the DNC chair. “These new DNC display panels clearly indicate what is happening to rural hospitals under the supervision of Donald Trump.”