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It was a tragedy that stunned a small Texas town: 18-month-old Edith Gonzales, a grape lodged in her tiny throat, died in her desperate parents’ arms because the county’s only hospital and emergency room had closed for good a few months earlier.
Yet medical care analysts say the scenario that led to the death -- a population suddenly left without immediate access to urgent medical care -- is likely to repeat itself in a growing number of communities nationwide.
[READ: How Hospitals Are Changing]
A combination of health care economics, political forces and demographic trends have triggered a quiet epidemic of hospital closures throughout the country. The problem stretches from rural areas like Center, Tex., where young Edith died in August, to hard-hit urban communities in cities like Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Experts say the closures are likely to continue, even as the Obama administration attempts to expand health care coverage to all Americans through the Affordable Care Act. In fact, some analysts say Obamacare may be unintentionally exacerbating the problem: To help pay for the program, the administration has cut federal reimbursements to hospitals that treat the uninsured, on the theory that those payments won’t be as necessary if everyone has health insurance.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/11/08/what-happens-when-the-only-hospital-closes
Yet medical care analysts say the scenario that led to the death -- a population suddenly left without immediate access to urgent medical care -- is likely to repeat itself in a growing number of communities nationwide.
[READ: How Hospitals Are Changing]
A combination of health care economics, political forces and demographic trends have triggered a quiet epidemic of hospital closures throughout the country. The problem stretches from rural areas like Center, Tex., where young Edith died in August, to hard-hit urban communities in cities like Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Experts say the closures are likely to continue, even as the Obama administration attempts to expand health care coverage to all Americans through the Affordable Care Act. In fact, some analysts say Obamacare may be unintentionally exacerbating the problem: To help pay for the program, the administration has cut federal reimbursements to hospitals that treat the uninsured, on the theory that those payments won’t be as necessary if everyone has health insurance.
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/11/08/what-happens-when-the-only-hospital-closes