Last weekend, the Atlanta Journal ran a report on the possible effects of Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on rural healthcare in Georgia, and the results weren’t pretty. According to a study by the American Hospital Association, Medicaid cuts in the bill could result in a reduction in funding of $50.4 billion nationally and $540 million in Georgia over the next 10 years. Another study from the University of North Carolina listed hundreds of hospitals nationwide, including four in Georgia, at risk of closing down services or shutting down completely. One of the Georgia hospitals mentioned in the report was in Fannin County, which voted 83% for Trump last year. Another was in Irwin County, which voted 77% for Trump in 2024. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 310,000 Georgians would lose all insurance if the bill passes.
The bulk of those losing insurance are lower-income individuals, who are disproportionately located in rural counties with small total populations. Georgia has 159 counties, many with total populations under 20,000. Without paying patients, the hospitals in these counties can easily become distressed. Further, doctors won’t practice in areas where they can’t make a living, leading to severe physician shortages as well.
From the AJC article:
Dr. Mattie Wolf, a neonatologist in Atlanta, treats newborn babies with severe health problems. Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in Georgia, and Wolf told reporters that her patients’ lives and their moms’ health would be endangered by cuts.
“Many of my patients require anywhere from 20 to 30 follow-up visits with pediatricians and subspecialists to continue their recovery, and many require several expensive medications during their first year of life,” Wolf said. ERs have to see all patients, but no law says specialists have to give an appointment to a patient who can’t pay.
There are plenty of lower-income Georgians living in urban areas who would be affected by the Big Beautiful Bill as well. However, there are more resources available to treat patients at low or no cost in those areas when the cost of their care can be subsidized by a larger number of paying patients at the same facilities. There are also more charitable resources available in those areas.
The leopards are licking their chops, circling those at risk rural hospitals. And the people living in those counties still go to bed at nights happy that Trump is sending bunches of migrants back to their home countries.
