Rural Nebraska Hospital Shuts Down Over ‘Anticipated Cuts to Medicaid’ Hours Earlier than ‘Huge, Lovely Invoice’ Passes

A small city clinic in southwest Nebraska will shut its doorways after greater than three many years, citing monetary pressure and looming federal cuts to Medicaid.

Neighborhood Hospital in McCook introduced Wednesday that will probably be shutting down the Curtis Medical Middle in Curtis — a group of roughly 900 residents. The announcement, reported by KLKN-TV, got here simply earlier than Congress handed President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Huge Lovely Invoice” on Thursday.

“Sadly, the present monetary surroundings, pushed by anticipated federal price range cuts to Medicaid, has made it not possible for us to proceed working all of our companies, a lot of which have confronted vital monetary challenges for years,” Neighborhood Hospital CEO Troy Bruntz mentioned in a press release obtained by the outlet.

The clinic, whose motto is, “Superior care. All the time there,” will part out operations over the approaching months.

Regardless of representing Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke out concerning the hospital’s closure, warning that it’s going to doubtless be “the primary of many” as a result of estimated Medicaid cuts included within the tax and spending invoice.

“Whereas Republicans have fun the passage of the biggest Medicaid minimize in historical past, the Curtis Medical Middle in Nebraska introduced it’ll shut down on account of these horrific cuts — the primary of many hospitals to shut,” Sanders mentioned.

“This can be a darkish day for rural America and for our nation,” he continued.

The Nebraska Hospital Affiliation and different rural well being advocates have sounded alarms concerning the invoice’s potential affect, warning it might pressure extra clinics and hospitals in underserved areas to chop companies or shut.

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