What Are Hospitals to Us? Most of us don’t think too much about hospitals, that is unless you need and use them. And when you do need them, well, you need them. And often you need them close to your home and in your community. But even as hospitals in cities like New York City and Detroit have been deluged with coronavirus patients, many rural facilities now have the opposite problem: their beds are near-empty, their operating rooms are silent, and they're bleeding cash. During these very irregular times, and unlike ‘normal,’ many hospitals are seeing way less patients than normal. Either because people are fearful of going to them for fear of catching COVID-19, or also because all elective (non-urgent) surgeries and other procedures have been postponed. More than 150 hospitals and hospital systems around the country have already furloughed tens of thousands of employees. One reason why rural hospitals in some states have shut more hospitals than others: The states that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act program have seen more hospital closures. Meanwhile, the pandemic has made it even harder for already financially vulnerable rural hospitals to survive. I’d be very sad if my local hospital closed. Especially if I worked there— …see more