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Heinrich: Rural Health Care At Risk

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

According to Senator Martin Heinrich Rural communities have long faced challenges with access to affordable health care insurance and services. Senator Heinrich outlined the findings of a report by Joint Economic Committee Democrats on just how much is at stake for rural America.

The report titled, “TrumpCare: Leaving Rural Health Behind,” highlights that TrumpCare could put coverage at risk for the 20 million rural Americans who have a pre-existing condition.

The report also details other ways TrumpCare would hurt rural communities, including increasing the number of uninsured, stripping away $839 billion from Medicaid, threatening rural hospital closures, and destabilizing individual marketplaces.

Senator Heinrich: "Over the last five years, we have seen incredible health coverage gains across New Mexico—especially in rural and tribal communities.

That means that instead of seeing uninsured patients coming to the emergency room with expensive medical emergencies, rural health providers are able to help patients live healthier lives with a preventative medicine approach and access to primary care.

And when medical emergencies do arise, New Mexicans have coverage that helps rural health providers cover their expenses.

If we throw away the coverage gains from the ACA, these rural health providers may very well have to close up shop.

Right now, more than one-third of rural hospitals are already at risk of closure.

But if you look at where the hospitals that have been forced to shut down are, they are almost all in states that didn’t expand Medicaid.

If hospitals shut down, health care delivery in rural New Mexico would be destroyed.

And the economic impact in rural states like New Mexico would be severe.

It is estimated that when a single hospital closes in a rural community, nearly 100 jobs are lost, taking more than 5 million dollars out of the local economy.

We can’t allow Republicans and President Trump to wreak this kind of chaos and deny whole communities in New Mexico accessible health care facilities.

We need to stop this disastrous health care bill in its tracks.

Let’s be clear.

This isn’t so much a health care bill but rather a tax cut for the ultra-rich masquerading as health reform."

For KRWG News, I’m Edmundo Resendez