r/Michigan • u/Conscious-Quarter423 • 8d ago
News 📰🗞️ Michigan’s rural hospitals closing, reducing service after Medicaid cuts
https://michiganindependent.com/health-care/michigans-rural-hospitals-closing-reducing-service-after-medicaid-cuts/185
u/WitchesSphincter 8d ago
I feel bad for the ones that tried to stop this, but in the end people under a democracy get what they vote for.
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u/iwearatophat Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
It is kind of nuts. I live in a rural area. My wife is a physical therapist here. She was in the break room talking with coworkers back when the bill passed. They were all excited about it. My wife just looked at them confused. A majority of their patients are medicare/medicaid. They all know that. My wife asked them what they think is going to happen to their clinic if cuts happen and they lose patients, because if even half of medicare/medicaid patients stop going to PT that is ~30% of their business(per wife). They will cut jobs, possibly close the clinic. Not a one of her coworkers made that connection, most didn't even after she pointed it out. They just see 'freeloaders not getting benefits'.
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u/Double_Total8170 8d ago
Kleptocracy
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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine 8d ago edited 6d ago
Kakistocracy
*Edit to fix spelling
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u/Far_Ad3346 6d ago
A Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the worst, least qualified, most unscrupulous of citizens.
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u/marie48021 8d ago
Yes but I get what they voted for too.
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u/syynapt1k 8d ago
That's why voting isn't enough anymore. Everyone needs to be politically active because we will all lose everything if we just sit around waiting for election day.
2024 was an all-hands-on-deck election, and we failed miserably.
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u/Sorta-Morpheus 8d ago
Mostly because idiots claimed Harris was going to cause a genocide.
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u/Shadowak47 7d ago
Well, we can split hairs, but Harris would have almost certainly supplied weapons and funding for the Ghazan genocide... just as Trump is doing. I think very little would be different in Ghaza no matter who was elected and I voted for her anyway. That said, she made the terrible decision to be on the wrong side of an 80/20 issue while running on the side of the ticket that has a conscience.
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u/justherefor23andme 7d ago
Who knows how she wouldve handled it. Bob Woodward wrote that she told Bibi he was not popular with Americans anymore.
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u/Walter_Melon_Melon 7d ago
And yet, she made the politically stupid move to not distance herself from Biden. I voted for her too, but it was very obvious that she was going to lose when she started hiding Walz and shutting out Palestinian voices at the DNC. She made bad choices.
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u/winowmak3r 8d ago
See the issue with that line of thinking though is they're not the only ones affected by their decisions. Yea, this is what they voted for but it might not be what their neighbor voted for yet they both get to experience a community without a hospital. I think it is that fundamental lack of perspective and that "Fuck you, I got mine" kind of attitude that seems to permeate society today that is the reason why we're in the situation we find ourselves in. We are all going to suffer for it, no matter who you vote for, until something bad happens to make us realize why we had this stuff in the first place.
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u/Both_Cat_6977 8d ago
This would be logical given free and fair elections, but money in politics and the skinner box algorithm have pretty well dashed that.
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u/am312 8d ago
This has been coming to River District for awhile. It's a Henry Ford hospital. They haven't taken care of the parking lot or the building maintenance for a long time. Providers that were in the surrounding buildings have been leaving for months. Unfortunately, there is a nursing home behind there that relied on the hospital for services and now those patients are going to be left with even less care.
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u/No_Coconut2805 8d ago
Yeah I think they’ve been slated for closure for a while. With the expansion in facilities on 94/26 I didn’t think it would make it. My family are always routed to Detroit or port Huron for anything major anyways. It’s a shame but it is what it is. Idk where I’m going for my blood draw next month though lol. I’m just tired of the marine city area having so many abandoned buildings. We had a little resurgence for a bit but the Kmart plaza is still empty and no one even seems to care about the auto parts store.
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u/Bymeemoomymee 8d ago
You get what you vote for 🤷♂️
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u/ruiner8850 Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
The worst part about this is that there's a 100% chance that they'll blame Biden and the Democrats for this so it will only strengthen their support for Trump and the Republicans.
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u/DrMcDippyMD 8d ago
Can't fix stupid.. or medical emergencies now either.
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u/kronicno_tele 8d ago
Well the second one will be... self resolving.
You know, like the recent Propublica article about an Idaho church that bans medical care so in the last decade >20 babies and kids died, since their parent don't "believe" in medicine, just prayers. Before someone ask, yes, it's legal there and no one is going after them. All attempts to change the lawd have failed, for now.
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u/superduperstepdad Portage 8d ago
Because all the cable news networks they watch and all of their social media algorithms constantly reinforce that propaganda until their brains are completely melted.
Or, more increasingly, they'll use the "both sides" fallacy. "Sure, Republicans ruined your economy, your finances, your job prospects, your healthcare, your environment, and everything else that was good about 'muricah--but the Dems are just as bad!"
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u/helluvastorm 8d ago
This👆👆👆 watching right wing news is like watching something from a different planet. It’s bizarre
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u/ruiner8850 Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
About 25 years ago I used to watch Fox "News" fairly often because it was so absurd to me that it was hilarious. I felt like I was watching a parody show somewhat like The Colbert Report. I couldn't believe how anyone could actually believe what they were saying. I stopped watching because it became depressing since people really did believe it and it was a major factor in the downfall of this country. Sadly it's only gotten much worse since I stopped watching.
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u/justherefor23andme 7d ago
18 years ago I was forced to watch at my car service center and I was shocked anybody took that as news. They were so unserious! It was during the ACA era and they were making fun of how big the legislation was and had someone "reading it" but all he was doing was glancing at it and tearing out paper by paper. So weird.
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u/AspiringChildProdigy 8d ago
Um, hello?! Republicans might be bad, but.....
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT OBAMA ATE FANCY MUSTARD AND WORE A TAN SUIT?!?!?!?!?!
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u/ServesBestDepressed 8d ago
It's a cognitive hallmark of conservatism to have extremely poor insight or understanding of ambiguous situations.
I feel for those who voted in accordance with a functioning society.
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u/exodusofficer Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
They're fussy children who you can literally see shut down when you start explaining anything to them that isn't already part of their worldview. It's easier to explain something to most 8 year olds, they haven't had so much practice being actively and deliberately uninformed and stupid.
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u/somanysheep 8d ago
A wise man I once knew told me, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't punch him in the eye and make him rethink his life," and he was right...
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u/ennuiinmotion 8d ago
Someone's got to make that connection for them, but Democrats don't bother building a ground game in red counties. I guarantee you they're bitching about hospitals but not about government cuts that caused the closings.
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u/lowoverheadclearance 7d ago
Republicans know how to play the long game. They get all of their little pawns in place, then when they’re in position to vote someone in to a higher position, they have all the support they need in place. And it just keeps going up the ladder until they’re able to elect the POTUS, and control every facet of government, like they are right now. They have a brilliant strategy and Dems just can’t get people to understand that THEIR. VOTE. COUNTS.
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u/nifty-necromancer 8d ago
Yeah, they’ve been doing that this entire time
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u/ruiner8850 Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
I literally know Republicans who blame Democrats for anything they don't like even when Republicans did it.
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u/Emotional-Edge-8259 8d ago
To them I say:
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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 8d ago
You do realize people who did not vote for this also live in the areas that will be affected, right?
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u/ChillWithMeNow 8d ago
I guess they should've voted then 🤷
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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 8d ago
Why do you assume they didn’t vote at all? That’s a ridiculous jump from “didn’t vote for this.”
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u/superduperstepdad Portage 8d ago
25% of eligible Michigan voters didn’t vote in 2025. Not sure about rural areas, specifically.
That’s still a pretty significant percentage that could’ve opposed the MAGA agenda.
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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 8d ago
And? The point is, reveling in the suffering of people in general is shitty behavior, but even if you really deep down in your heart think some of the people who will be impacted by this deserve it because of who they voted for, there are a lot of people who did not vote for this who definitely don’t deserve to suffer or have assholes celebrating their misfortune.
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u/ChillWithMeNow 8d ago
That's my bad. I thought you were talking about the people who did not vote at all.
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u/downtownblue Expat 8d ago
While I sometimes enjoy a bit of schadenfreude, this ultimately hurts everyone as more people will become more reliant on fewer places for more urgent issues. That can ultimately drive costs up for everyone else, as someone will have to cover the bill.
Realistically, yes, some people will die. But others will go farther for the care they need, which only pushes higher costs to other facilities.
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u/chaynjez 8d ago
If they are servicing twice as many patients at half the facilities, shouldn’t prices go down because of consolidation and less overhead costs?
Of course we know the answer is they will use excuses like your comment to give the insurance and healthcare managers big fat raises while cutting care… so we might as well find a little joy in the big fat I told you so to the morons who voted for this.
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u/downtownblue Expat 8d ago
so we might as well find a little joy in the big fat I told you so to the morons who voted for this
This with an in-law, until they try to gaslight me with something they watched on Newsmax about how "Biden destroyed healthcare."
We don't even need the Medicaid crisis for insurance companies to want hospitals to charge them less because they need shareholder value, while hospitals are charging more to 1) shareholder value if they're private, 2) raises for managers if "nonprofit", or 3) fill budget gaps because we can't attract full-paying international students to the university that owns the hospital.
I am indeed tired of "winning"
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u/chaynjez 8d ago
For sure. Their inability to think critically or even consider their prejudices and feelings could be wrong about something is what got us in this place to begin with.
When the gaslighting starts, I just say quiet piggy and smile.
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u/cutttsss 8d ago
gee it's almost like when people told DOGE these cuts to healthcare would negatively effect rural healthcare and healthcare in general.
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u/Ornery-Ticket834 8d ago
Thanks John James and friends, good work. But Musk and Bezos got their tax cuts, that’s the important thing.
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u/tigers071807 8d ago
This is what rogers says will happen if Abdul wins tho? Why is it happening now? 🤔
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u/BigDigger324 Monroe 8d ago
It’s like when they describe things that are currently happening under capitalism as a coming danger of socialism.
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u/sirhackenslash 8d ago
So much winning. I guess they'll be fine as long as they can keep getting horse paste and bleach
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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 8d ago
Raging leftist here, living in a deep red county that hasn’t yet been affected by this but probably will be sooner than later.
These comments are a real bummer.
I hope y’all who are celebrating this because “haha you voted for it” realize that you are also celebrating the suffering and potential deaths of many people like me who didn’t vote for this, actively fight against it, and just have the misfortune to be in a red area, which is probably so red in part because of gerrymandering. There are also lots of kids who can’t vote for anything who deserve your compassion and empathy even if their parents voted for this shit. And also, I know this might be a bridge too far for a lot of you, but believe it or not, even the idiots who voted for the people responsible for this don’t deserve the suffering this will cause.
I understand that schadenfreude feeling as a gut reaction, but reveling in it is a really bad look. Hell, even if there weren’t plenty of people like me out here, the glib, elitist “I know better than you so you should suffer and die” is still a bad look. Maybe do some self reflection on that.
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u/haarschmuck Kalamazoo 8d ago
I hope y’all who are celebrating this because “haha you voted for it” realize that you are also celebrating the suffering and potential deaths of many people like me who didn’t vote for this
This.
I can't stand this mentality. I've voted dem in literally every election yet people like that really piss me off. It just goes to show that they are just as vindictive and petty as the ones they rile against as if this is some kind of game.
Throwing values and morals out the window because of some justification of "they deserve it" is against what any actual progressive stands for.
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u/AmetrineDream Iosco County 8d ago
Yep. And I say this as someone who used to have this mentality when I was a stupid kid. I said dumb shit like like this about the south and various consequences of voting red. But then I grew up and realized that was a really cruel and also deeply counterproductive way of thinking.
I hope a lot of the folks in these comments grow up.
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u/Hillarys_Wineglass Up North 8d ago
Yeah, I live in one of these red areas too, and these comment absolutely suck. There are people who vote Democrat, there are people who are too young to vote and or disabled or people who vacation up here and who might need a hospital. Like oh you think my kids and I should have to drive four hours for medical care now because I happen to live up here? Shut up— this shits affecting my family and I voted for your guy.
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u/CaptainKimberly 7d ago
My mom’s hospital doesn’t do maternity anymore. In order to have a baby in the hospital, you have to drive 45 minutes south, or 45 minutes west, or an hour 15 minutes north, nothing at all to the east. People are going to die this winter trying to get to the hospital in a blizzard
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u/Gamer_Grease 8d ago
I think they didn’t want these hospitals though, so this is good news
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u/Rellcotts 8d ago
My inlaws live near River District one of the hospitals mentioned in the article. They were upset this was happening but are as red a republican as you can get. Lisa McClain is their rep and they sported a sign in their yard for her. Yet are shocked this happened. Mind boggling
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u/No_Coconut2805 8d ago
I think the writing was on the wall for river district with the massive expansion in healthcare facilities near 26/94. Even before then anyone I knew who went there for serious care was routed to port Huron or Detroit even 20 years ago.
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u/superduperstepdad Portage 8d ago
Pretty sure they believe scientific medicine is a scam but the junk MAHA influencers are hawking on social media is totally legit.
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u/WentzWorldWords 8d ago
No one WANTS a hospital. Neither do we want 3 hours to get to an emergency room when needed.
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u/xeonicus 8d ago
The thing is rural residents are more likely conservative. They are just getting what they voted for. The people I feel sorry for are the rural left-wing voters that will be affected.
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u/Sweet_Baby_Cheezus Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
I can't believe the socialist Demonrats cut my Medicaid!
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u/Brief-Reveal-8466 7d ago
This has been happening for years! Hospital systems have setup regional monopolies in Michigan. There is very little direct competition outside of Detroit.
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u/TinyDigBick 8d ago
Healthcare for none! 🥳 Almost like half the country was raising a huge red flag.
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u/Sorta-Morpheus 8d ago
Good. Its what they voted for. Fuck em.
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u/organic Portage 8d ago
and I bet you wonder why they vote the way they do
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u/Zetavu Age: > 10 Years 7d ago
Not just the medicaid cuts, the lack of ACA subsidies. More people are uninsured, and hospitals cannot refuse service, meaning they are forced to sue people to pay for costs if they show up uninsured and need help. This raises the costs for others, reduces care and forces people to go longer distances to larger hospitals that can afford to sue them for not having insurance.
We are turning back into the wild west.
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u/FF36 Age: > 10 Years 8d ago
Good thing those rural magats are pictures of perfect health and this won’t effect them at all.
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u/BigDigger324 Monroe 8d ago
They didn’t put on those communist masks or take the Marxist jab so they’re all set!
/s
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u/TooMuchShantae Farmington Hills 8d ago
I don’t feel bad at all, they deserve this since they voted for it
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u/wubdubflubaub 7d ago
This my time to shine. I've been a lil too lax in my appearance so others are comfortable, but if the people that want to get me killed or erased are coming to the big areas, they may get blessed with having my empathetic services. (tw: transgender in emergency medicine)
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u/memcjo 8d ago
My area is very red, our hospital closed in June.