More Americans Are Losing Health Insurance—And Everyone Will Pay

Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of MLK Community Hospital in Los Angeles, already knows what will happen if her hospital closes. All she has to do is remember King Drew, a similar safety net hospital that provided care to a large share of low-income patients in the same neighborhood, that closed in 2007 because of safety and quality problems. The low-income neighborhoods in South Los Angeles were without a hospital for almost a decade. As a result, other hospitals in the area saw higher volumes of patients and more uninsured patients; one hospital’s share of uninsured patients more than tripled, from about 13% to nearly 45%, a study found. This redistribution of sick people led to severe overcrowding in other hospitals and higher costs for insured patients. Now, Batchlor and many other hospital administrators are bracing for this dynamic once again as cuts from H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ripple across the U.S. health care system. H.R. 1 makes it more difficult for people to stay on Medicaid by introducing work requirements and by demanding that people re-confirm their income and address every six months, rather than every year. It also reduces the amount of stat...