Overview

• Community Hospital’s Curtis clinic is winding down operations over the coming months, becoming the first facility to close in response to the One Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid reductions.
• The enacted legislation cuts roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, jeopardizing reimbursements that cover about one in four adults in rural areas.
• Lawmakers included a $50 billion fund—providing $10 billion annually over five years—to support rural providers, but analysts say it falls far short of projected losses.
• Studies by the CBO, Kaiser Family Foundation and UNC Sheps Center estimate that 338 rural hospitals could close and up to 12 million people may lose coverage through Medicaid or ACA marketplaces.
• Rural healthcare providers, already operating on thin margins and receiving reimbursements below care costs, face budget shortfalls that threaten local emergency and primary care access.