This article originally appeared in The Michigan Independent. Read more here.
As Congress debated the One Big Beautiful Act last year, health advocates warned that provisions in the bill cutting $1 trillion over 10 years from Medicaid and other federal health programs would imperil healthcare access, especially in rural communities.
Those predictions are now being realized in Michigan: A new fact sheet distributed by the nonprofit organization Protect Our Care shows that since President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in July of last year, several Michigan hospitals and clinics have closed or cut back services and others are at risk of doing so.
The sheet says Michigan hospitals “are expected to lose $28.4 billion over the next decade due to GOP Medicaid cuts. As of August 2026, 23 Michigan health care providers are at-risk, announced cuts, are closing, or have closed.”
Rural health facilities in the state have been particularly hard hit. Last September, Aspirus Health announced that it would end labor and delivery care at its Ironwood Hospital in the Upper Peninsula.
And in June, the Sturgis Hospital in St. Joseph County, a mostly rural section in southern Michigan, announced it would cease operations. “This decision follows many years of ongoing financial challenges facing rural healthcare providers, including declining reimbursement rates, rising operational costs, and a sustained decrease in patient utilization,” it said in a statement.
In a phone interview, Amber Bellazaire, a senior policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy, told the Michigan Independent that while many of the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill have not gone into effect yet, hospitals and health providers are having to take them into account in their planning processes.
“We are deeply concerned that this new change will mean that we will see an uptick in Michigan’s uninsured rate, and that is where there’s concern for providers,” said Bellazaire, whose organization is part of Protect MI Care, a coalition of Michigan groups working to protect Medicaid.
She noted that hospitals do not get paid when uninsured patients show up in the emergency room and cannot afford to pay for care.
“If a hospital, say particularly in a rural area, is already operating on low or very thin margins, that becomes unsustainable over time,” Bellazaire said. “And then they need to make really difficult decisions about, how do they scale back services, how do they potentially close entire service lines that are high cost, such as labor and delivery or psychiatric services, some emergency services — or, in the worst case scenario, do they need to discuss closure entirely?”
The nonprofit Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform maintains a Rural Hospitals at Risk of Closing list. As of July 2026, it lists 10 Michigan rural hospitals at risk of closing and three at immediate risk.
Closures and cuts will mean that many patients will have to travel long distances to get care.
Henry Ford Health announced in August that it will eliminate the emergency department at its River District Hospital in East China in St. Clair County. The nonprofit healthcare organization’s website directs people to instead seek emergency care at its other facilities, 25 to 40 minutes away by car, in Chesterfield and Clinton Township.
“Our concern is that if a hospital that’s 20 minutes down the road from you closes, and you’re getting ready to have a baby, that maybe now the closest facility to safely deliver that baby is now 45 minutes or two hours away from your home,” Bellazaire said.
“Once you get towards the end of your pregnancy, you’re going sometimes weekly to see your doctor. And if it is burdensome, if it is hard to get there because you don’t have transportation access or gas prices are up, you might be thinking twice about, Do I want to make this three-hour drive to and from?”
Experts predicted that the cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would push already endangered rural healthcare facilities over the edge financially, leaving communities without nearby care.
“Our hospitals and our providers will face limiting services or closing locations, and healthcare workers will lose their jobs when a hospital or provider limits services or closes,” Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Elizabeth Hertel warned in July 2025, according to a Michigan Advance report. “They don’t stop seeing patients who have Medicaid. They stop seeing everybody who lives in or visits that community.”
“Cuts to funding are cuts to care,” said Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, in a July 3, 2025, statement: “Limiting how states can fund their Medicaid programs puts Michigan in an extremely difficult position. If the state can no longer provide the same reimbursement, hospitals will be faced with difficult choices that will include eliminating service lines or even entire facilities.” Peters estimated that the law would cost Michigan hospitals more than $6 billion over a decade.
Despite these warnings, Michigan Republican U.S. Reps. Tom Barrett, Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar, and Tim Walberg all voted for the law.
Michigan Democratic Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin and Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Hillary Scholten, Haley Stevens, Shri Thanedar, and Rashida Tlaib all voted no.
Republican U.S. Senate nominee and former Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers released a statement celebrating passage of the bill: “It’s a great day to be an American. President Trump and Republicans just delivered a monumental victory for hard working families across the country–including eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and social security; protecting Medicaid; securing the border; and preventing the largest tax hike in American history.”
His Democratic opponent, former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed, says on his campaign website that if elected, “I will push to immediately repeal Medicaid and ACA subsidy cuts from the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act.”