Nearly 90 rural hospitals across the country have closed their doors since 2010; another 355 are considered at risk for shuttering, beset by low patient volume, staffing issues or inadequate Medicare reimbursements. Fort Scott joins Independence, Oswego and Horton as Kansas communities where residents feel vulnerable and on-edge.
Places like Fort Scott, a town of 8,000 in Bourbon County, about 90 minutes south of Kansas City, are at the center of the debate in Kansas over the expansion of Medicaid now allowed by federal law. Kansas is one of 14 states that has yet to grow the program, which provides health coverage to low-income individuals and the disabled.
Under federal law, states that broaden Medicaid eligibility to up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line ($34,600 for a family of four) will receive extra money to help cover the costs, estimated for Kansas at somewhere between $34 million and $47 million a year.
(Read more: Government & Politics News |)