Van Buren County residents to rally for Medicaid, local health care facilities

KEOSAUQUA - With Congress considering drastic cuts to Medicaid, Van Buren County residents and friends will rally on Thursday afternoon to support the health care program for low-income Americans and the local hospital and senior care center that depend on it.

Under a budget outline the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, must reduce at least $880 billion in costs through 2034. Simple math shows that the bulk of those cuts must come from Medicaid. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Van Buren County’s representative in Congress, sits on the committee and its Subcommittee on Health.

The Medicaid reductions are designed to help offset the fiscal effects of extending tax cuts that most benefit the wealthiest Americans.

As of December 2024, 1,629 Van Buren County residents relied on Medicaid programs – about 23 percent of the 7,127 census-estimated population. In the fiscal year that ended last June, Medicaid covered $13.6 million in health care bills for Van Buren Countians. In that same fiscal year, Van Buren County Hospital received $6.6 million from the program – about 26 percent of the institution’s revenue. It’s one of the county’s largest employers.

“Medicaid cuts threaten the lives and health of Van Buren Countians, but they also would devastate our rural hospital and others like it,” rally organizer Eric Weston of Bonaparte said. “Medicaid also covers many, if not most, residents of the Country Lane Manor nursing home. With lower Medicaid reimbursement, the center would struggle to survive, its residents could be left without options, and it would be forced to lay off care providers.”

A group of Van Buren County residents and friends recognize the threat and are calling on Miller-Meeks and her fellow Republicans to reverse course, forsake Medicaid cuts and let tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans expire.

From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 15, they’ll gather at Van Buren County Hospital at 304 Franklin St. in Keosauqua to alert their fellow citizens to the danger facing their friends and neighbors, the county hospital, and local care center. Anyone of any political position who cares about their family and friends and their community’s health is invited to join them.