09/01/2026
Nationwide, the median drive time between hospitals providing inpatient maternity care to Medicaid enrollees and the closest in-state alternative is 43 minutes for rural hospitals compared with 13 minutes for urban hospitals, the analysis found.
The study by KFF, a healthcare research organization, suggests that the closure of rural obstetrics units will accelerate as a result of the healthcare changes included in the broad tax and spending measure President Donald Trump signed last summer. That law will reduce some payments to hospitals and cut Medicaid enrollment by introducing work requirements.
Already, rural obstetric services are diminishing at a rapid rate: From 2010 to 2022, 238 rural hospitals closed their obstetrics units while only 26 hospitals opened new units. In 2023, almost half of rural counties did not have a hospital offering obstetrics services...
Brittni Frederiksen, the lead KFF researcher for the report, said in an interview that rural hospitals already operate on thin margins, and that the additional cuts could push some of them over the edge.
“There are likely going to be rural hospitals that close their obstetric units or have to close the entire hospital, and so people will have greater distances to travel to safely deliver a baby,” said Frederiksen, an associate director at KFF who specializes in women’s health policy...
“We already have a maternal health crisis in this country, and already have very poor outcomes when it comes to delivering babies safely in this country. And then in rural areas, in particular, people already have to travel long distances to deliver,” Frederiksen said.
“Anytime you increase the distance to delivery, you know the likelihood that it could result in poor outcomes increases.”
Read more >> https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/09/01/repub/more-rural-hospital-closures-would-mean-long-drives-for-pregnant-women-seeking-obstetric-care/
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We know in northwest WI the crisis with our hospitals and health systems is much bigger than Trump's devastating cuts.
Large hospital chains have been allowed to operate as non-profits in name only. They ruthlessly price-gouge consumers and use the windfall profits to expand into new markets, driving their competition (smaller hospitals) out of business and exerting monopoly control over entire regions.
In Wisconsin, the Legislature enabled this predatory business model in the 1980s. Acting under the influence of hospital industry lobbyists, the Legislature exempted the hospital industry from public oversight, repealing basic consumer protections. Lobbyists promised that once their industry was deregulated, hospitals would more efficiently provide high quality care at an affordable price to every community.
Instead, the hospital industry abused our trust. They built massive hospital chains focused on providing the most profitable types of medical services while neglecting services communities need most, like mental health care, substance use treatment, and primary preventive care. In their relentless drive to corner the market, hospital chains drove up healthcare costs, destabilized the medical care system, and failed to provide the services that keep people healthy.
Our state legislature has the power to put the guardrails back in place to lower costs for consumers and stabilize our teetering healthcare system. Until they act, our medical bills and insurance premiums will keep going up–and every community in the state risks suddenly losing critical healthcare access.
Citizen Action members are working with state Senator Dora Drake on a Hospital Accountability Act that will take a first step to creating an affordable, accessible health care system that: (1) Works for patients by returning public oversight to the prices the big hospitals charge, requiring fair prices based on the actual cost of service; (2) Ensures hospitals demonstrate the community need for any costly new medical service and capacity. This will prevent wasteful over-building, which drives up consumer costs.
To learn more about the developing legislation and to get involved in our organizing in support, contact: [email protected]
Rural hospitals are closing or dropping obstetric units, a trend that will accelerate because of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
