One of the more pressing problems plaguing our health care system is the limited resources available to rural hospitals. Tennessee is no exception.
According to a tally of rural hospital closures from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 14 hospitals in Tennessee’s rural areas have closed since 2010.
That same center, in a separate report last year, estimated that another nine rural hospitals in Tennessee could close due to Medicaid cuts passed by congressional Republicans in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
It should be noted that Ascension Saint Thomas, a medical provider in Middle Tennessee that the report found could see three of its rural hospitals close, has publicly disputed UNC-Chapel Hill’s findings.
Still, these Medicaid cuts instituted by the GOP — with support from each congressional Republican in the Tennessee delegation, including Chattanooga’s Rep. Chuck Fleischmann — are certain to have a disparate impact on rural hospitals across Tennessee and elsewhere.