Exactly two months after President Donald Trump signed his policy megabill in a July 4 celebration at the White House, a Virginia health care firm blamed the regulation for the closure of three rural clinics serving communities alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The closures, Augusta Medical Group said in its statement, have been half of the firm’s “ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery.”
Rural health suppliers that depend on Medicaid funding have been already beneath pressure earlier than the invoice lower federal health spending by tons of of billions of {dollars} over the subsequent decade. Now, Democrats are linking that disaster to Trump and Republicans in elections this yr and subsequent.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger lately campaigned in Buena Vista, a 6,600-person city that’s shedding its clinic, as she tries to enhance her get together’s standing with rural voters forward of this fall’s election. Candidates for governor, doubtlessly confronted with the job of navigating the cuts, have been amongst the most vocal about the threats to rural health care, together with Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Rob Sand in Iowa, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and former Biden administration Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in New Mexico.
“Rural hospitals are closing, at the end of the day. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg here in Virginia, and it’s a sign of what’s to come,” stated Marshall Cohen, a veteran Democratic strategist at the political agency KMM Strategies.
Ken Nunnenkamp, government director of the Virginia GOP, pushed again on criticism of the Augusta Health closures in an announcement to NCS. Augusta Health, which declined to remark past its assertion, famous in its announcement that sufferers at two of the clinics may very well be reassigned to different services lower than 10 miles away and that it will use a cell clinic to serve folks affected by the third closure.
“If two health clinics consolidate in order to provide better, more consistent, and more accessible service to the patients from both locations, that is a win for rural communities,” Nunnenkamp stated in an announcement.
Under the laws, Medicaid spending is ready to fall by greater than $900 billion over the subsequent 10 years, in accordance to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. About 7.5 million extra folks can be uninsured in 2034 due to the coverage modifications, with 5.3 million of them being affected by the addition of work requirements for a lot of low-income grownup enrollees, in accordance to the CBO’s most up-to-date evaluation.
The work necessities are probably to have an effect on rural communities extra, stated Tim Layton, an affiliate professor of public coverage and economics at the University of Virginia, as a result of it’s tougher for residents in these communities to discover employment.
“You can expect those places to be impacted by now having people who don’t even have Medicaid,” Layton stated. “With fewer people to spread fixed costs across, it becomes harder and harder to stay open.”
Rural health care suppliers disproportionately depend on Medicaid enrollees. They have been already battling restricted affected person swimming pools and long-term inhabitants loss.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina, cited in a letter by Democratic senators opposing the GOP laws, recognized 338 rural health services nationwide endangered by the coverage modifications, together with six whole in Virginia.
Candice Crow, a mom of 4 youngsters who’ve autism, closely depends on the Bon Secours – Southampton Medical Center in Franklin, Virginia, one of the services on the researchers’ listing. She’s been raising considerations with local media and spoke to NCS.
“The staff there are so kind and caring. They do go above and beyond. They’re very accommodating for the special needs children and all their little medical complexities that they have,” Crow stated. “Every minute counts when it comes to emergencies. This could cost someone their life, so you’re taking away their lifeline.”
To alleviate the influence of the cuts, Republicans in Washington created a $50 billion fund for rural health suppliers, inviting “all 50 states to apply for funding to address each state’s specific rural health challenges.”
“If we invest this money wisely, we won’t just have health care systems barely hanging on in rural America,” stated Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “They’ll start to thrive.”
Nunnenkamp, the Virginia Republicans’ government director, known as the fund “effectively the largest investment in rural hospitals in decades.” US Rep. Ben Cline, the Republican representing Virginia’s sixth District, which incorporates the three closed clinics, additionally pointed to the fund and defended his vote for the invoice.
“Provisions like work requirements to root out waste, fraud, and abuse do not take effect until December 2026 or later. By making these reforms in cooperation with our health care providers, we can ensure that all Americans, especially those in rural areas, receive the high-quality health care they deserve,” Cline stated in an announcement.
Layton stated the rural health care fund was a “short-term patch,” noting that “$50 billion will go pretty quick.”
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit targeted on health coverage, wrote in a July study that “federal Medicaid spending in rural areas is estimated to decline by $137 billion, more than the $50 billion appropriated for the rural health fund.”
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, has additionally proposed tapping the state’s wet day fund to assist cowl further funding.
“We want to make sure that whatever happens with Medicaid, we have the money here to help. We have the money and the budget to help. You know, we have put money aside for rainy day,” Sears stated at an occasion in Marion, in accordance to a report from Cardinal News. “The bank account has never been that full. And so we are ready for any changes that happen.”
Spanberger says that wet day fund – which outgoing GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin said final month held $4.7 billion – gained’t be sufficient.
“This is not a rainy day. This is a bad bill that came out of Washington,” Spanberger stated on the first day of early voting in Virginia at an occasion in Fairfax on Friday. “They are throwing those costs on the state, and in the interim, people will fall off of their health care, so the problem is immense.”
Pete Barlow is a Democrat operating to unseat Cline and lives in Augusta County, the place two of the affected clinics are. “This administration has really taken a bloody ax to rural health care. It’s incredible, and it’s going to have downstream effects for years to come,” Barlow instructed NCS.
He says that as he speaks to folks in the group, they don’t at all times instantly “connect the dots” about why they are shedding providers, however it’s a recipe for finally breeding deep frustration. “How is it making America great again for us to be cutting our rural health care? It blows me away,” he stated.
Lynlee Thorne, political director of Rural GroundGame, a bunch supporting Democratic candidates in Virginia, stated Democrats are “willing to listen” as they have interaction with rural voters on the coverage modifications. According to NCS exit polls, Trump gained two-thirds of rural voters in the 2024 election.
“We’re not simply coming in to tell people that they’re going to be hurt, and we’re not just pointing to bar graphs and charts to make our case through big numbers, but we’re saying we care enough about you to be here and to hear how this is going to impact you,” Thorne stated.
The dialog doesn’t cease there, she added.
“We also need to talk about what it is we’re going to do for people, how we’re going to fight to fill that gap,” Thorne stated.