August 19, 2025
Throughout the country, rural hospitals will close, and empty cities will reflect the quiet halls where doctors and nurses once rushed to cure.
A decade ago, when the law in Montana under the leadership of the Republicans for the first time took place on the expansion of Medicaid, I went to almost every rural hospitals of our country to our legislative meeting. I still remember the meeting of the town hall in Khoto, which has only 1700 people. The hospital administrator shared that 43 percent of people walking through the hospital door lacked insurance; The chairman of the district commission told those who attend that if they lost the hospital, they would lose the city.
Transition forward to 2025. Now there are more Republicans in the legislative body of the state, but this year there is a re -right to Medicaid. Changing the cost of uncompensated care when those with insurance cover the costs of those who are unusually in trauma, where it is most expensively decreased. Preventive assistanceIncluding breast and colon cancer examination, diabetes and hypertension, continues to solve health problems at the front end, not when too late.
And while more than 100 rural hospitals closed the door over the last decade, no closed in Montana.
However, before the fourth of July, when Congress went to the break, the Republicans DC voted in favor of canceling all this hard work. Now they are at home in the summer, confronted with the communities themselves, in which hospitals and health care they just voted for the risk.
Republicans voted in favor of expel the hard -working Montans from Medicaid. They voted in favor of threatening rural hospitals that our communities hope and make medical attention more expensive and less affordable.
In short, Republicans voted in favor of worsening our medical care.
Current Issue
Senator Steve Dinns defended his voice for Fox News, claiming: “We must take able -bodied men putting (SIC) on the sofas of the house and return them to work and from Medicaid.”
The problem is that these people do not exist in my state. According to the Montana Health Fund, 94 percent Adults on Medicaid work, disabled, caregivers or students. The remaining 6 percent of adult working age are just under 9,000. Even if all 9,000 of these people were just “lying on the sofa” – and they are not – Daine still voted in favor of picking up health insurance from 31,000 peopleMore than three times higher than the number of unemployed adults on Medicaid.
And you will not be mistaken that it hurts one of us in Montana, hurting all of us. If our neighbors lose health insurance, we can all lose hospitals
According to one of the analyzes, Medicaid cuts will cost hospitals in Montana More than 2.2 billion dollars Over the next 10 years the money they cannot afford to lose.
When rural hospitals are closed, there are no alternatives for our residents. They should ride on or not care at all. In addition, the hospital is often the largest employer in the community, and these hospitals provide well -paid jobs: from nurses to doctors to maintenance staff. When hospitals leave, you may have to follow the montanans, forcing them to choose between their families near and the career they love. Of course, this will not be limited to Montana – these scenes will be played in each state across the country.
Will the Republicans pay in the ballot boxes for what will worsen healthcare? They certainly could – KFF discovered it revealed most adults Across the country, it opposed the bill, hearing that it would reduce the financing of local hospitals. It is not surprising that the Democrats and independent opposed the bill even before he was told that it would damage the hospitals, and 85 percent and 71 percent, respectively, adhered to unfavorable views. However, the non -republicans also opposed the bill, with 51 percent of the unfavorable views, increasing to 64 percent of the unfavorable ones, hearing that it harmed the hospitals as those we are fighting to protect here in Montana. Even Maga’s independent voters were unable to harm local hospitals by going from 78 percent of the 55 percent adverse, devastating accusation of Trump’s most committed supporters.
Even Republican politicians punch it, realizing their voters will receive. They wrote the law to make sure that the worst consequences do not land only after the intermediate elections. They added a fund to support rural hospitals for five years. They added more documents and bureaucratic red tape to Medicaid, but if it started in December 2026, a month after the dust came out of the intermediate elections. As they say in the old saying, “You can put a pig lipstick, but it’s still a pig.”
These attacks led by Republicans can help turn states such as Montana back into purple-or even a solid blue Democrats must start their messages now, and they need to continue. Democrats must make sure that every voter knows why their hospital can close. Each voter should know why their sister, brother, aunt or cousin had to move through the state to continue working as a practitioner. Each voter should know why their neighbor postponed medical care until it was too late.
Voters should know all over the country why: it was not about being cautious executives of your earned tax dollars if this would be the case, they wouldn’t add another $ 3 trillion to the federal debt. Republicans voted against our healthcare, and they did it so that they could give a little more money the richest among us.
Popular
“Spend on the left below to view more authors”Spend →
I hope the next time I visit Choteau, the hospital is still there. I remember his people react to the chairman of the district warning – if we lose the hospital, we will lose the city.
Montana does not need more rural cities, but it voted for what Republicans. Throughout the country, rural hospitals will close, and empty cities will reflect the quiet halls where doctors and nurses once rushed to cure.
At this point, the crisis we need the only, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We begin to see how we start to develop on the streets and ballots all over the country: from the Candide company in Mary’s New York Mammani, focused on accessibility, community that protect their neighbors from ice, to senators who oppose weapons.
The Democratic Party has an urgent choice: will it accept a policy that is fundamental and popular, or will continue to insist on the loss of elections with the elites and consultants who brought us here?
At NationWe know on which side we are. Every day we are doing the case for a more democratic and equal world, defending progressive leaders, raising movements, fighting for justice, as well as exposing the oligarchs and corporations that make profits at the expense of all of us. Our independent journalism informs and gives the opportunity to progress across the country and helps bring this policy to new readers ready to join the struggle.
We need your help to continue this work. Will you donate to support NationIndependent journalism? Every contribution goes to our award, analysis and comment.
Thank you for helping us take Trump and create a fair society we know.
With respect
Bhaskar Sunkara
President, Nation
More than Nation
The destruction of Dei has a clear motive: to prevent the Americans from looking for a common cause.
In the coming days and weeks, everything is possible, but it is difficult not to feel that we are striving for escalation of violence.
