Experts worry the tax-and-spending bill will gut healthcare and hospitals, especially in states like North Carolina
When Hurricane Helene drowned western North Carolina in muck and floodwater last year, it caught folks off-guard.
Now, local leaders in places like Asheville expect the Republican-led reconciliation bill – called the “big, beautiful bill” by Donald Trump – to bear down on rural America. And they wonder whether people are missing the warning signs.
“It’s going to have to hit them first,” said Laurie Stradley, CEO of Impact Health in Asheville, a Medicaid-funded non-profit providing social services to some people still digging out from the flood.
Medicaid is the single largest health insurance program in the US. The public program covers 71 million low-income, disabled and elderly US residents. It pays for half of all US births and the care of six in 10 nursing home residents.
I typically only want good things for all people, but I have no sympathy for the rural voters who brought this upon themselves. I feel bad for their neighbors who voted against this, but that’s a minority of the rural population. Have fun, fuckers!