When More Hospitals Start Closing, Says Warren, 'Every Single American Needs to Know' Trump's GOP Is to Blame

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Monday that the American public "needs to know" that the blame will lie squarely at the feet of President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers if and when hospitals across the country are forced to shut their doors due to the unprecedented Medicaid cuts included in the new budget law.

"Every single American needs to know what Donald Trump and Republicans did in the 'Big Beautiful Bill,'" Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on social media, referring to the budget reconciliation package that the president signed late last week.

"When hospitals close their doors, we know who to blame," Warren continued. "When thousands more people die from not getting care, we know who to blame. When kids go hungry, we know who to blame."

The nation's rural hospitals, which rely heavily on Medicaid reimbursements, are expected to bear the brunt of the pain from the Republican law, which includes more than $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts as well as destructive changes to federal nutrition assistance and other programs. Nursing homes, community health centers, Planned Parenthood clinics, and other facilities are also at risk, and states are now scrambling to prevent catastrophe.

An analysis published by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform prior to passage of the GOP legislation estimated that more than 700 rural hospitals across the U.S. are at risk of closing due to "serious financial problems."

"Republicans will try to ignore the devastation their disastrous reconciliation bill will cause. We won't."

The health policy organization KFF notes that federal Medicaid spending in rural areas is projected to fall by $155 billion under the GOP law over the next decade—an amount that far exceeds the $50 billion that Republicans allocated to a "Rural Health Transformation Program" over the next five years.

Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, warned in a statement following the Senate's passage of the legislation earlier this month that the bill would "limit access to care for all rural patients by ending healthcare coverage for rural residents nationwide and putting financial strain on rural facilities who care for them."

Already, as Common Dreams reported last week, a healthcare clinic in rural Nebraska has announced it is shutting its doors in part due to the expected impacts of the GOP Medicaid cuts. The closure is predicted to be the first of many.

A recent analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill warned that more than 330 rural hospitals are at risk of closing or reducing services due to the Trump-GOP assault on Medicaid.

Over the weekend, Trump administration officials defended the budget law in talk show appearances by attempting to downplay its impact on Medicaid and other healthcare programs.

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday that he believes "nobody is gonna lose their insurance"—a claim that dramatically conflicts with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that around 17 million people will lose health coverage under the Trump-GOP law.

"He is only off by 17,000,000," quipped Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) in response to Hassett's comments.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote over the weekend that "Republicans will try to ignore the devastation their disastrous reconciliation bill will cause."

"We won't," Sanders added. "We're going to make them explain what happens when 16 million lose their healthcare and nursing homes and hospitals are forced to shut down or limit services."