Hundreds of rural communities are about to lose their local hospitals.
Since 2005, 166 rural hospitals have shuttered, with a third of rural hospitals in the danger zone. Bad debt for rural hospitals has gone up about 50% since 2010. The financial health of rural hospitals depends largely on the insurance status of patients: 83% of rural hospital closures occurred in states that did not expand Medicaid.
The math is simple – hospitals that treat uninsured patients must absorb the cost of uncompensated care. On top of that, administrative costs eat up about a quarter of rural hospitals’ budgets, largely due to the billing requirements of dozens of different insurers. But under single-payer Medicare for All, every patient who walks in the door would be covered for all medically necessary care. Even better, Medicare for All would end the archaic fee-for-service payment model, a system that punishes hospitals that don’t have a consistent flow of patients. Instead, we would fund hospitals through annual “global budgets” that are based on community health needs, not patient insurance status or corporate profits.
As a rural family physician, I am convinced that Medicare for All is the lifeline that rural Americans and our community hospitals need and deserve.
Joan MacEachenDurango