Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Rural Hospitals Wary of Proposed Medicare Cuts

1. http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/10/rural-hospitals-wary-proposal-cut-medicare-costs/

2. Category: Heath/medical

3. Level of problem: National/state

4. Article concerns a problem for families and individuals.

5. The federal government is reevaluating the Medicare reimbursement that is given to rural hospitals. It is a problem because these hospitals will get major budget cuts and face the possibility of being shut down. If that happens many people may not get the immediate help that they need to survive.

6. I feel like the federal government is taking a huge risk by taking away the financial security of these rural hospitals. The article focused mainly on Texas. There are many rural areas across the state that will lose the help they need for people who have major emergencies. People in need will have to travel further to get immediate help and in rural areas these critical access facilities are already about thirty miles away. There are "sixty-four [out] of Texas' 254 counties [that] already do not have a hospital" and that number will rise should there be hospitals that shut down due to these reevaluations. There will also be many people that will lose their jobs if more facilities were to shut down and it will inevitably increase unemployment and there will be no more hospitals near their area. If there is any way to prevent this the government should try to keep the hospitals because many people depend on them.

No comments:

Post a Comment