600+ Hospitals, Clinics, and Nursing Homes Are Facing Closure or Cutting Services in the Wake of GOP Cuts
Washington, D.C. – Today, Donald Trump and Republicans announced the recipients of their rural hospital fund — a small, short-term payout that highlights how Republicans created a nationwide crisis and are now offering little more than a patch to fix it. The announcement comes as rural hospitals across the country face closures, service cuts, layoffs, and a growing strain on their budget after Republicans gutted over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, including $660 billion in hospital funding. Entire communities are finding themselves without nearby care. Patients are driving hours for basic doctor visits and prescriptions. Local economies are suffering as health care jobs vanish. But the rural hospital fund falls far short of what rural communities need, leaving families stranded without access to life-saving care.
“Republicans are trying to fix a bullet hole with a bandaid,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “This is a woefully inadequate response to a crisis that Republicans themselves set in motion. After pulling the trigger on policies that are sending shockwaves through rural communities, Republicans want credit for a short-term fund that does nothing to stop the bleeding. It won’t stabilize rural hospitals and it won’t protect access to care. Until Republicans stop attacking American health care and start fixing the damage they created, no amount of political spin will turn a bandaid into a solution.”
Background
- Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress made the largest health care cuts in history: shuttering hospitals, closing emergency rooms, and devastating maternity wards — all to give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations.
- The grants announced today will do little to nothing to help rural health care providers facing over $130 billion in cuts, and provide zero assistance to the urban hospitals that make up 56 percent of those most at risk from cuts.
- The consequences of the GOP’s Big, Ugly bill are already happening and will only get worse as deeper cuts to hospitals take effect in 2027 and 2028 and the GOP pity fund will fail to stop the bleeding.
- Their $50 billion pity fund already failed to scratch the surface of the hundreds of billions in cuts to hospitals, before the Trump administration dictated no more than 15 percent of the meager funds can be used to help rural health providers stay afloat.
- For more on how hospital closures impact patients and communities: What Hospital Closures Mean For You Fact Sheet.