“Report Warns Hospitals in Aroostook, Ellsworth Face Imminent Risk of Closure Due to Medicaid Cuts”

Augusta, Maine – In case you missed it, reporting is warning rural Maine hospitals “face imminent risk of closure due to Medicaid cuts” included in Republicans’ dangerous budget bill that passed thanks to Collins “key” “pivotal vote” to advance the bill and her failure to use the power and seniority she campaigns on to stop its final passage.

According to the report cited, Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle and Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth “are at immediate risk of shutting down” while Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, Cary Medical Center in Caribou, and Calais Community Hospital are deemed especially vulnerable.

In addition to ripping away health care coverage from 61,000 Mainers, the GOP law and cited Medicaid cuts “will mean significant job cuts, longer wait times, and an overall increase in health care costs, including for people not on Medicaid.”

Read more:

Maine Morning Star: Report warns hospitals in Aroostook, Ellsworth face imminent risk of closure due to Medicaid cuts
By Eesha PendharkarAugust 22, 2025

  • A new national report warns that sweeping Medicaid cuts recently signed into federal law could push hundreds of hospitals across the country to the brink of closure — and Maine’s rural hospitals are among the most vulnerable.

  • The report, released this month by the advocacy group Protect Our Care, estimates that more than 330 hospitals nationwide — including Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle and Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth — are at immediate risk of shutting down due to reductions in Medicaid funding included in congressional Republicans’ tax law signed by President Donald Trump on July 4. That will mean significant job cuts, longer wait times, and an overall increase in health care costs, including for people not on Medicaid, according to the report. Another 400 facilities are considered vulnerable.

  • Maine hospitals could lose more than $66 million annually in revenue as a result of the Medicaid cuts, according to previously released analyses from Families USA and think tank Third Way. In addition to the Ellsworth hospital, those other studies identified Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, Cary Medical Center in Caribou, and Calais Community Hospital as especially vulnerable due to persistent operating losses and heavy reliance on Medicaid revenue.

  • In rural states with hospitals already closing, health care leaders have emphasized that the threat is particularly acute. Nearly half of Maine’s 24 rural hospitals are considered “at risk” of closing, according to a separate analysis by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Such closures will impact the local community and economy, the report noted.

  • Nationally, hospitals employ roughly 10% of all workers in rural counties that report having any hospital employment, the Protect Our Care report said. When rural hospitals close, communities can lose a staggering number of jobs. One rural hospital closure can eliminate 220 jobs immediately, the report said.

  • The closures would further compound an already shrinking health care network. Since 2020, five hospitals in Maine have shut down their labor and delivery units, leaving expectant mothers in wide swaths of the state without local maternity care. Waldo Hospital in Belfast, Houlton Regional Hospital, Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, and Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville all ended maternity services in 2025 alone.

  • The report specifically called out congressional Republicans for “pulling the plug on entire communities’ access to care.”

  • Maine Democratic leaders have criticized Collins for voting to advance the measure. Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said during a recent press event, “she has cost us our health care. She has cost us freedom. She has cost us the representation that we as Mainers and as Americans deserve.”

  • If closures accelerate, rural Mainers could face long drives to reach critical care. Advocates have warned that without intervention, Maine’s fragile hospital system may not be able to sustain the services communities depend on.

See more: ICYMI: “Health Care Providers Call Out Collins for Supporting Medicaid Cuts that Will Slash Rural Hospitals, Jobs and Services”; What Mainers Are Saying: Collins Failed to Use “Her Immense Power” to Stop Harmful GOP Bills; What Mainers Are Saying: “Collins is Out for Herself,” “Betray[ed] Her Constituents,” “Helped Facilitate the Terrible Legislation’s Passage”; What Mainers are Watching and Reading: Maine Dems Call Out Collins for Her Role in Advancing GOP Budget Bill; ICYMI: Maine Democrats Call Out Susan Collins for Her Role in Advancing Disastrous GOP Budget Bill in Bangor; What Mainers Are Saying: “Collins Bears Full Responsibility,” “Let the Citizens of Maine… Down Big Time” with Passage of GOP Budget Bill; ICYMI: Susan Collins “May Not be Able to Avoid the Blame” for GOP Budget Bill Despite Apparently “Orchestrated” Vote [Portland Press Herald]; ICYMI: Despite Collins' Final Vote on Reconciliation, "Republicans Pass it Anyway,” After She Made “Key,” “Pivotal Vote” to Advance Bill in First Place

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