One Rural Doctor on the Real Cost of Medicaid Changes
Featuring Shannon Dowler
Produced by Anna FoleyOlivia Natt and Caitlin O'Keefe
Edited by MJ Davis Lin
With Diana NguyenPaige Cowett and Patricia Willens
Original music by Elisheba Ittoop
Engineered by Alyssa Moxley
When Republicans passed their big domestic policy bill just over a week ago, they kept making the same argument about sweeping changes to Medicaid: that the measures, including new work requirements, would encourage able-bodied adults to earn their health care, ultimately creating a fairer system for everyone. Critics said the opposite: They have predicted that millions of working people who need health care will lose it.
The truth will emerge in rural and often Republican-voting areas where cuts to Medicaid funding will be felt most deeply. Natalie Kitroeff spoke to a family doctor in one of those places, western North Carolina, about what she thinks will happen to her patients.
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Shannon Dowler, a family physician and health advocate in western North Carolina.
In North Carolina, President Trump's domestic policy law jeopardizes plans to reopen one rural county's hospital — and health coverage for hundreds of thousands of state residents.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the Senate's version of Trump's bill would mean that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034.
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