The Big Beautiful Bill will kill American hospitals

It’s bad enough that Republicans believe poor Americans should be allowed to die without health care. But if you ever need a hospital, whether or not you have insurance, this could kill you, too.

“That’s because each node of the system is interdependent. If the 190 rural hospitals estimated in a recent Center for American Progress report as collateral damage of the Republican cuts close, all of their patients must find treatment at the remaining health care providers. Many of these new-arrival patients are likely to be uninsured (many thrown off Medicaid or Obamacare by Republicans), crushing hospital finances and potentially adding more closures on top.

“This means overcrowded hospitals and overburdened staff, in addition to the serious hardships for patients traveling long distances for care. “The Republican Senate budget accelerates the rural hospital collapse that is under way, like jet fuel on a fire,” said Alex Lawson of Social Security Works, who works directly on health care issues in Washington. “Hospitals that don’t close will be the ones people drive four hours to access. The quality of everybody’s health care in this country will plummet.

“HOSPITALS HAVE LURCHED FROM ONE CRISIS to the next for years. Between the 2020 COVID pandemic and 2024, 36 rural hospitals closed, on the heels of 136 closures in the previous decade. Another 16 have closed this year, suggesting an acceleration of the trend, and hundreds more are at risk.

If the entire hospital doesn’t close, unprofitable business lines are often shuttered first. “I’ve talked to a lot of hospitals worried about having to close maternity wards,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who ran the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Biden administration. In California alone, 56 hospitals have ended maternity care since 2012, and the crisis of maternity deserts is acute.”

Setting aside the question of whether American needs more babies*, maternity care is health care. Lack of maternity care and health care deserts used to be a third world problem. The Trump GOP wants to turn American into the next third world country.

*no, we don’t need more babies. With AI and robots promising to take lots of jobs in the next 30 years, what jobs will those babies have when they grow up? With global warming drowning and burning arable land, how will those babies eat and drink when they grow up?

https://prospect.org/health/2025-06-13-hospitals-senate-republicans-senate/

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