Obamacare Repeal Threatens Rural Hospitals
Loss of local hospitals means lost jobs as well as healthcare.
Judy Keller, 69, has always relied on Highlands Hospital in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, for medical care, just as her parents did before her. When she walks through the halls, she recognizes faces from the community, including some from her days as a schoolteacher. The 64-bed facility, she says, is a mainstay of this rural southwest Pennsylvania town. “This hospital, all my life, has been here,” says Keller, now retired. “[It] helps a lot of people who don’t have adequate health care coverage—and I don’t know what they would do without it.”
Aside from providing health care to a largely poor population,
