Idaho Statesman
By: Audrey Dutton and Melissa Davlin
Idaho’s small-town hospitals have their own reason to back Medicaid expansion: In some cases, it may keep their doors open. After years of stalled debate in the Idaho Legislature, expansion will go to a statewide public vote Nov. 6. Among other arguments, proponents have urged Idahoans to consider that small, rural hospitals may have to close if they can’t start tapping Medicaid for their poorest patients.
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National researchers described cases where Medicaid expansion in other states aided small hospitals there. “There is no question that hospitals are seeing less bad debt. Particularly rural hospitals have a lot to gain,” said Joan Alker of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families. “If you look nationally at where we’ve seen rural hospital closures, it’s been in states that have not expanded Medicaid.”
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