Two years ago, Bucktail Medical Center, the only hospital in rural Clinton County, was on the verge of closure.
One of the smallest hospitals in Pennsylvania, Bucktail was beset by increasing operating costs and financial challenges.
A $1 million grant from the state helped stave off the closure. In 2023, the hospital reported $7.09 million in revenue and $9.2 million in expenses, tax records show.
Not unlike how Jonestown drank the Kool Aid, MAGA’s mass suicide will be by defunding.
Unfortunately, they’ll be taking a lot of innocent people with them.
It is difficult to drum up a lot of sympathy when the state representatives the rural citizens vote for vote against supporting the small hospitals that keep the rural citizens alive.
I heard about the hospital from a This American Life episode that reported on the hospital CEO’s efforts to save it.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/817/the-cavalry-is-not-coming
It was heartbreaking. The CEO mentioned personally loaning money to the hospital, and trying to hope that the hospital would be able to pay him back.
Completely absent of any ability to self-reflect, they will drive hours to the nearest city, full of anger, believing fully that the government has abandoned them even more than ever. They will once again vote for Republicans and government cuts just to get fucked even harder the next time.
The cycle repeats lol