Editorial: Cuts to Medicaid could devastate rural hospital staffing

Heartland Fund highlights rural Arizona health care providers and the new obstacles they face. Communications and Policy Director Michael Chameides illuminates the problem in a syndicated editorial published with OtherWords. It was republished in The Daily Independent, which covers the Salt River Valley of Arizona, Cochise County Herald/Review, and the University of Arizona’s Center for Rural Health.

The editorial follows the efforts of Dr. Ed Paul in rural Arizona. In the small border city of Nogales, he sees well-trained, hardworking doctors and nurses. Yet as in many smaller towns and rural communities, its health care staffing, infrastructure and funding don’t meet the needs of residents.

Dr. Paul is trying to change that. He travels to rural and Tribal communities across Arizona to help create a workforce development pipeline for state medical school graduates.

The federal government should boost the efforts of Dr. Paul and those in other states who are driving solutions. But this decades-long work is being undermined by huge cuts to Medicaid as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed in 2025, which slashes programs like SNAP and Medicaid to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

“The real bottom line is, based on the regulations that have been put forth, a lot of people will fall off the roster because of the requirements. More uninsured people is not good for the whole medical economy period.” – Dr. Ed Paul