2025 - Motorcade for Medicaid part 2

The poverty rates in these counties:

Jay: 26.3%

Randolph: 24.1 %

Blackford: 31.7%

Delaware: 30.4%

Adams: 27.8%

% of people on Medicaid in these counties:

Jay: 23.8%

Randolph: 22.5 %

Blackford: 23.9%

Delaware: 24.7%

Adams: 23.4%

What you should see here is that nearly 1/4 of the population of these counties is under the poverty line and have Medicaid benefits. This also means that the hospitals in these largely rural counties (except for Delaware) have very large portions of their revenue from Medicaid dollars.

Back in June, a list of 12 endangered rural hospitals in Indiana came out. This list was based on the proposed budget cuts to the bill Congress was trying to pass and the damage that would be inflicted to rural Indiana hospitals. Three of the hospitals on the list were Adams, Jay, and Randolph counties' hospitals. They receive a disproportionate amount of their revenue from Medicaid funding. Many of the rural hospitals are owned by the corporate hospitals, which are supposed to be non-profit, and are actually closing the smaller rural hospitals which aren't returning profits. Blackford County's hospital was closed in 2023, joining 17 other counties in Indiana with no hospital.

The bill as originally proposed cut $911 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, $155 billion of which would hit the bottom line of rural hospitals in the US. Some senators were holdouts for a yes vote on the bill until $50 billion was added back in specifically for rural hospitals. But the thing is that this $50 billion isn't just put back. It is to be granted to states who apply for the funding. No criteria has been specified for what qualifies to receive it. No qualifications have been defined. We don't know how that $50 billion will be divided or whether areas who need the funding most will get it. And of course, the fact remains that this is less than 1/3 of the Medicaid funding for rural hospitals which was taken out.

If this funding were to end and the three hospitals would close, there would be a 100 mile stretch between Reid in Richmond and Lutheran in Fort Wayne without a hospital in the Ohio Border Counties.

What would losing the hospitals look like? I live in Blackford County, so I can tell you first hand what that looks like.

- Longer ambulance rides to an ER. If you have a stroke or heart attack, you could be outside the "golden hour" to get into an ER which increases survival and recovery chances by 80%.

- That leads to the ambulances being out of county on runs more often and lessening their availability for other needed calls. I had a friend who DROVE HIMSELF FROM HARTFORD CITY TO BALL IN MUNCIE WHILE HAVING A HEART ATTACK.

- Hospitals which remain will have much longer waits to get into the ER. Recently, our family needed an ambulance which we were lucky to get one, and they asked which hospital. I asked how long the wait was at Ball and they said 2-3 hours. I said let's go to Portland which didn't have a wait.

What about the talk that "we don't have any plans to close?" Well, that is the truth, they don't. But you are talking to the local administration. And they aren't planning to close. The financial impact of the budget cuts to Medicaid haven't hit them yet. But I can tell you this, if and when they aren't profitable, the corporate administration (not local) will be looking at closing them. There was no plan to close Blackford until the day they announced it was closing. And I don't care what expansion is happening. We have placed a lot of extra burden on the ERs of Ball, Portland, Bluffton, and Marion/Gas City because all of our Blackford County ER cases go there now. We are sending even more people on Medicaid there because we are even worse off poverty-wise. We aren't going to help the profit margins of the surrounding counties' hospitals.

The purpose of the Motorcade for Medicaid was to highlight what could happen to the people living in the counties of the vast expanse between Richmond and Fort Wayne. Too many people are unaware of this fact or the details as to what could happen. It goes beyond politics. It will literally be life and death for the people of our area.

Thank you to to Nonviolent Medicaid Army and the Indiana Rural Summit for helping to get this movement off the ground. And especially thank you to all the people who showed up. We need to make this potential issue known about.