CEO Update: Olympics; Supporting Rural Health is a Long Race

I love the Olympics and I appreciate that now we get to see them every two years between the summer and winter events. Over the past two weeks, I’ve stayed up too late trying to catch all the action!  During that time, I was in DC for the NRHA Policy Institute and CRHC’s annual visits on the Hill with Colorado policymakers.

This year, like years past, it was important to engage our policymakers in the happenings in rural Colorado. During the NRHA Policy Institute we learned that Colorado now has 20 of 43 rural hospitals operating in the red which is nearly 50%. This is not a complete surprise as we’ve been over 40% operating in the red for several years. But this year, with the near future budget cuts to Medicaid at the State level, the likely increase in the number of uninsured or under insured individuals with the loss of premium tax cut subsidies, and the cuts coming to Medicaid in January 2027 from H.R. 1, things feel different. And different not in a good way.

According to the Colorado Hospital Association rural hospitals in 2025 had:

• 1,611,169 total hospital visits
• 205,195 emergency department visits
• 66,935 behavioral health visits
• 4,996 babies delivered
• 11,661 hospital employees and
• $6.7 Billion in financial impact

These are big numbers. Can you imagine the impact on access to care, loss of jobs, and loss of financial impact in rural communities should a rural hospital close? 1.2 million people in Colorado are covered by Medicaid. That is 20% of the population and of those individuals on Medicaid, 31% or 377,019 are covered by Medicaid Expansion (51,659 of those living in rural Colorado).  It is estimated that between 95,000 and 108,000 (25% to 29%) expansion adults in Colorado will lose Medicaid coverage under the work provisions and of that number 13,000 to 15,000 in rural Colorado are expected to lose coverage. What that means is the number of individuals without insurance will increase and for rural healthcare facilities that means the cost of uncompensated care will increase. With nearly 50% of rural hospitals in Colorado operating in the red, this will quickly become a problem for their ability to keep the doors open or continue to offer the same level of services they do now. It’s been decades since the last Colorado rural hospital closed and CRHC will continue to work closely with our rural hospitals and clinics through our programs, services, technical assistance, and advocacy to help ensure access to care in rural communities throughout Colorado.

Please join us at our Annual Conference April 15-17, download the 2026 Snapshot of Rural Health, and reach out to CRHC staff to engage with rural healthcare and be a part of the solutions!