Rural Health
Expanding Medicaid Would Help Keep Rural Hospitals Open in 14 Non-Expansion States
I’ve written before about how America’s rural hospitals are in crisis – and the 14 states that still are refusing to expand Medicaid are contributing to financial woes of these institutions. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed these rural providers to the brink. There is stress throughout the health system with even major hospitals in urban […]
Solution to Maternal Health Crisis Must Center on Medicaid
Earlier this month, CCF submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee with recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and help mothers and babies thrive together. At the heart of our comments was this: Medicaid must be at the center of any efforts to solve to this crisis. Here’s why. Medicaid paid for nearly half […]
Top 10 Rural Counties Where Kids Rely on Medicaid for Health Coverage
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Georgetown University CCF and the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Rural Health Research Center has a joint project which has been tracking the role of Medicaid for rural areas and small towns. We recently updated our online data resource with county figures for 2015/2016, a time period during which the impact […]
The Importance of Medicaid to Kentucky’s Rural Areas is Eye Popping
In 2017, we embarked on a new project with the Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina Sheps Center for Health Services Research to examine the role of Medicaid in rural areas and small towns. In our first report, Medicaid is a Lifeline for Small Towns and Rural Communities, we highlighted the […]
More Rural Hospitals Closing in States Refusing Medicaid Coverage Expansion
The University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Research Program tracks closures of rural hospitals across the country. From 2010 to the present there are six states with five or more rural hospital closures. Texas leads with a stunning 15 rural hospitals closed, followed closely by Tennessee (9 rural hospitals closed) and Georgia (7 rural hospitals […]
Rural Residents and Communities Have Much at Stake in Medicaid Expansion
Last year, working with our partners at the University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Project, we released a report that underscored the critical role that Medicaid plays in rural areas and small towns with populations below 50,000. This year Jack Hoadley, Mark Holmes and I took a look at how Medicaid expansion has impacted these same […]