WKYT-TV: Proposed Medicaid cuts could put 35 Kentucky hospitals at risk of closing

In a letter to President Donald Trump, U.S. Senate Democrats have raised concerns about the risk his “Big Beautiful Bill” will have on rural hospitals. The letter lists 338 of them that will be at risk of closing if the proposed cuts are implemented, with 35 of them in Kentucky — the most of any state,  Samantha Valentino reports for WKYT-TV.

“It’d be devastating to what is a strong rural hospital system,” Gov. Andy Beshear, who has been sounding the alarm about this for months, told Valentino.

The letter was also addressed to U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and U.S. Majority Leader John Thune.

The Congressional Budget Office says the proposed changes would save more than $800 billion in federal spending over the next decade, but Beshear says the proposed cuts to the Medicaid program, which covers 50% of the state’s children and 70% of its seniors in longterm care, will come at a cost to people’s lives, Valentino reports.

Beshear also noted that the closure of 35 rural hospitals would have a grave impact on employment in those communities.

“Our rural hospitals are typically the second-largest employer in the county that they’re located in, after the public school system. Now think about all those jobs being wiped out,” Beshear told Valentino.

When WKYT asked for comment about the Democrats’ concerns about the impact of the bill on rural hospitals, Congressmen Andy Barr, R-Lexington, and Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, said they support the changes, with Barr saying the changes will refocus the program to be available for those truly in need and Rogers saying the changes will remove “waste, fraud and abuse” from the program. Rogers also pointed to the Kentucky Hospital Association‘s support for the bill.

KHA sent this statement to WKYT about the cuts: “The Kentucky Hospital Association endorses the Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, as passed by the House, protects the Kentucky Medicaid program, which means that our patients will continue to have access to the care they need, when they need it. If the bill does not pass the Senate, there is a strong likelihood that our Medicaid patients will not be able to access all of the services our hospitals currently provide. We have called on the U.S. Senate to concur in the House Medicaid provisions.”

A list of the 35 Kentucky hospitals considered at-risk can be found in the letter.