ICYMI: Warnock Visits Rural Hospital Facing $3.3 Million in Annual Cuts Due to GOP Tax Bill

Senator Reverend Warnock visited Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton, Georgia

The hospital is forced to cut $3.3 million annually to break even because of the GOP tax bill, which will kick 750,000 Georgians off their health care

Photos available HERE

Claxton, GA – Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) visited Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton, Georgia to discuss the risks to rural health care access following steep cuts to Medicaid in the recently passed GOP tax law. Evans Memorial Hospital, a lifeline for rural Georgians, is forced to cut $3.3 million annually to break even due to the GOP tax bill, which will kick 750,000 Georgians off their health care. When rural hospitals have to provide care to people without insurance who cannot afford their medical bills, it makes it more likely that hospitals will be forced to cut services or close their doors. The GOP tax bill’s health care cuts could mean Evans Memorial will have to scale back intensive care unit (ICU) or cardio-pulmonary rehab services. Recently, Evans Memorial Hospital had to shutter its labor and delivery unit because it was no longer financially viable.

The inappropriately named One Big Beautiful Bill puts pressure on hospitals to close, putting more than 16,000 rural healthcare jobs at risk, according to the GA Hospital Association. The GOP Tax bill will kick up to 93,000 Georgians off Medicaid and raise premiums on 1.2 million Georgians who get their health insurance on the marketplace, or Georgia Access. About 52% of kids in rural areas in Georgia are covered by Medicaid, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families (CCF).

Media coverage of Senator Warnock’s visit to Evans Memorial Hospital can be found below:

WJCL: Georgia US Senator visits Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton

Many rural hospitals are struggling to stay vibrant, and some are even in danger of closing.

There are some who believe that the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill will put even more in peril.

With that as a backdrop, Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock paid a visit to Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton.

Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock was an extremely interested observer Monday afternoon as he got a firsthand look at the operations of Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton.

Senator Warnock was also a concerned observer, worried about the viability of these rural hospitals in the wake of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“The folks in this building do heroic work every single day, and often they are doing it, against great odds,” said Warnock. “And sadly, those odds have been increased.”

Evans Memorial Hospital president and CEO Bill Lee was grateful for the senator’s visit.

“This is about relevance and survivability,” said Lee. “And so for the senator to take time to come and try to understand and hear from our team, that here are some of the issues that we really fight on a daily battle basis. It’s exciting to me to be able to have him take time and come visit with our team.”

Warnock, though, is hoping it won’t come to that.

“It’s not too late for Congress to turn back, to make a course correction and ensure that hospitals like Evans Memorial not only survive, but thrive,” said Warnock.

AJC: Georgia’s rural hospitals tighten budgets ahead of Medicaid, ACA changes

But without changes to federal funding plans, Evans faces a $3.3 million budget shortfall next year, CEO Bill Lee said Monday.

Lee, his fellow administrators and even nurses and physicians made their case to U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. The Democrat toured Evans Memorial as part of a multi-stop swing through the state to raise awareness of the impact President Donald Trump’s federal spending plan — known as the “big beautiful bill”— will have on Georgians.

Warnock on Monday praised “the folks in this building who do heroic work every single day.

“And often they are doing it against great odds, and sadly, those odds have been increased by the GOP bill that was recently passed,” Warnock told reporters in a press conference following the tour. “When I think about the work that these folks have to do in this building, that bill is not beautiful at all.”

Warnock called on congressional Republicans, such as U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island, to “course correct” on their health care decisions. Carter’s district stretches the length of the Georgia coast and covers 15 counties, 13 of them rural, including two that border Evans County. Carter, a retired pharmacist, supported the GOP bill and said the Medicaid changes target waste, fraud and abuse and that the legislation’s tax breaks increase health care accessibility and affordability.

“Georgia’s senators have never treated patients — as a pharmacist, I have, and I understand the importance of providing accessible, affordable, and quality health care to Georgians,” he said.

WTOC: Local rural hospital losing millions of dollars following cuts from One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock visited Evans Memorial and looked at not only their new services, but services they will be forced to cut due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Let me tell you I have not seen people more committed to their work. The folks in this building do heroic work,” said Senator Warnock.

Senator Warnock says some hospitals will be forced to close.

“This is a matter of life and death and in spite of the heroic work that people in this building are doing every single day,” said Senator Warnock. “It increases the likely hood of this hospital or hospitals like it will close. Or if they don’t close, they will have to face critical services.”

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