Democrats adopt new strategy to highlight Trump’s filth on Medicaid: billboards in rural America | Medicaid

The road to four struggling rural hospitals now conveys a political message: “If this hospital is closed, blame Trump.”

Amid a series of black and yellow billboards built near the facility, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) attempted to tell voters in the crimson states “responsible for covering up rural health care.”

“Under Trump’s watch, Steelewell General Hospital is closing,” a sign screamed. Billboard outside the hospital in Silex Missouri;Columbus, Indiana; Steele, Oklahoma; and Missoula, Montana.

For Republicans, the fate of rural hospitals has become a politically controversial issue, as the historic cuts that the Republicans are expected to take effect over the next decade. Trump’s huge big bill bill (OBBBA) from Medicaida public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, provides insurance for more than 71 million adults.

“The real impact will have an impact on people who are not being cared for,” said Dave Kendall, senior health and fiscal policy researcher at Third Way, a central left-wing advocacy group.

“That’s what happened before we had rural hospitals – they just couldn’t take care of it because they couldn’t afford it and they couldn’t go to the hospital.”

Republicans add $5 billion to respond to criticismRural Health Transformation Fund“Just before OBBBA passes. The fund is expected to cover it one third About 70% of the losses that rural areas will face are losing four hospitals that Democrats now own nearby billboards. Rural Health Foundation provides funding in 2030, and Medicaid cuts are not sometimes.

This has become political football, because Democrats In a letter, the money was a “mud fund” that had been promised for major Republican congressmen.

“We show that these taxpayer funds have been promised to members of Congress in exchange for their votes in support of the big and ugly betrayal,” he said. Written 16 Democratic senators In a letter to Trump’s Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mehmet Oz.

“In addition, the vague legislative language that created the fund seems to be your personal fund, based on your political whims.”

Rural hospitals have been under financial pressure for more than ten years. Since 2010 153 rural hospitals Inpatient services that define hospitals have been closed or lost, according to the University of North Carolina Sheps Health Services Research Center.

“Across the country, hospitals are either going to close or cut critical services, and Trump’s own voters will suffer the most,” DNC chairman Ken Martin said in a statement announcing the billboard.

The OBBBA is expected to further exacerbate these financial pressures. Recent Analysis City College It was found that rural hospitals could lose $87 billion in the next 10 years.

“We hope rural hospitals can close – we’ve started seeing some hospitals like ‘Okay, how are we going to survive?’” said Kendall of Third Way.

one June analysis The Sheps Center found that 338 rural hospitals in states such as Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma could be closed due to OBBBA. According to the country, there are nearly 1,800 rural hospitals nationwide Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a healthcare research nonprofit.

This view is supported by the national rural CEO healthy Alan Morgan, the association said in a recent newsletter that 45% of rural hospitals have already lost money.

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

In the decentralized American health ecosystem, Medicaid is both the largest and poorest payer for healthcare providers. Patients benefit greatly from cost-free care, but Hospital complains The Medicaid fee does not pay for services, leaving institutions disproportionately relying on less Medicaid financial stability. In rural areas, the benefits of employer health insurance is It’s harder to come; Therefore, more hospitals rely on Medicaid.

But even Medicaid Payments are less than other insurance plans, and some payments are still better than none. Over the next decade, Trump’s cut of more than one ton of OBBBA from the program will result in nearly 12 million people losing coverage.

When people without insurance get sick, they are more likely to delay care. More likely Use the hospital emergency room, More likely Work hard to pay the bill. In turn, the institutions that serve them suffer.

“This is what Donald Trump “Really – tighten the people who are counting on him. These new DNC billboards clearly illustrate what is happening in rural hospitals under Donald Trump’s surveillance.”