A clinic in Republican southwest Nebraska announced it’s closure this week due to anticipated Medicaid cuts from President Donald Trump’s new budget — approved by its own Republican lawmakers.
After more than 30 years of service, McCook-based Community Hospital said it's shutting down its small-town clinic in Curtis due to financial challenges and GOP assault on Medicaid payments.
“Unfortunately, the current financial environment, driven by anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid, has made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years,” Community Hospital CEO Troy Bruntz told KLKN-TV, adding the clinic will wind down services over the next few months.
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Curtis Medical Center was Frontier County’s only healthcare facility. The county contains no critical access hospitals.
NPR reports Trump’s bill, which passed in both the House and the Senate without a single Democratic vote, is expected to reverse many of the health coverage gains of the Biden and Obama administrations, who reduced the U.S. uninsured rate to record lows. The Congressional Budget Office estimates Trump’s reductions in federal support for Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces will cause nearly 12 million people to be without insurance by 2034.
The GOP plan also curtails a practice known as provider taxes, which hospitals and nursing homes use as a lifesaver to bump up federal Medicaid payments and keep budgets balanced. Additionally, the new legislation will make it more difficult for applicants to enroll and retain insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace by forcing policyholders to update their income, immigration status, and other information every year, rather than automatically rolling information into the new year.
Customers will also have less time to re-enroll, which NPR reports 10 million Americans did "this year.”
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“We’re delivering on President Trump’s growth agenda,” insists Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who represents eastern Nebraska’s 1st District. “This is about growth.”
All of Nebraska’s federal lawmakers voted in lockstep to support Trump “Big, Beautiful” budget bill, according to the Nebraska Examiner. Frontier County, which contains the town of Curtis, voted overwhelmingly for Trump, with 1,213 votes compared to only 185 votes for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
See the full KLKN-TV report at this link.