By Jamie Brown, RN, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

Community hospitals are there for us at our most vulnerable moments. They’re where our children are born. We rush our loved ones to the local ER, post-stroke, when every second counts. 

Unfortunately, the federal government has left communities across Michigan at risk of losing that lifesaving care. That’s why working people are joining forces to call for change, and to build a society that puts patients before profits, with Medicare for All.

When the Trump Administration passed their 2025 budget bill, H.R. 1, they cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid, Medicare, and other federal health care programs. That money was redirected to fund things like billionaire tax breaks and wars abroad. 

As longtime Michigan healthcare leaders, we know these cuts, which are set to go into effect after the midterm elections later this year, will harm and kill our patients. 

Thanks to H.R. 1, 10 million people across the U.S. are projected to lose their insurance by 2034, and many of our community hospitals, which rely on Medicaid and Medicare funding, are now at serious risk of service cuts or potential closure.

Take Beacon Kalamazoo Hospital (formerly Ascension Borgess), a critical piece of the health care infrastructure in Kalamazoo County. With a 24/7 emergency room, a Level II trauma center, and comprehensive stroke center, Beacon Kalamazoo is a lifeline for the local community.

In 2024, the last available year for much of this data, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey, the hospital received 46,017 emergency room visits, admitted 11,019 patients, and delivered 442 babies.

H.R. 1 put all that patient care in jeopardy. According to analysis of Medicare Cost reports and Definitive Healthcare reports by National Nurses United (NNU), Medicare and Medicaid are responsible for half of Beacon Kalamazoo’s net patient revenue. According to the AHA Annual Survey, nearly 85 percent of Beacon Kalamazoo’s patients are on Medicare and/or Medicaid. 

As a result of federal health care cuts, NNU estimates a loss to Beacon Kalamazoo’s income of $9.6 million to $15 million annually. How are our community hospitals supposed to function when funds that kept them open were axed to benefit billionaires and war profiteers?

If Beacon Kalamazoo were to close, patients would need to seek care at Bronson Methodist. Although it is only two miles away, Bronson’s emergency room often has very long wait times, with eight percent of patients leaving the emergency department before being seen in 2024, higher than the two percent national average. 

Bronson’s ER would struggle to absorb the patients who would otherwise seek emergency care at Beacon Kalamazoo.

Bronson also does not offer certain medical service lines that Beacon Kalamazoo does, including: electrophysiology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation. In fact, Beacon Kalamazoo has the only dedicated psychiatric emergency department in the area. The loss of such services would be devastating, as the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services noted rising mental health needs among the population.

Beacon Kalamazoo is just one example of the real-life impact of slashing public health funding. Financial analysis by NNU and analyses by multiple other organizations have identified hundreds of at-risk hospitals across the United States, including hospitals in Michigan.

As longtime union members, we understand the power of organizing for change. That’s why NNU has launched a Red Alert: Save Our Hospitals tour, and nurses will be visiting communities across the U.S. in 2026 and beyond, to sound a warning about vulnerable hospitals. 

The tour will stop at Bronson Park in Kalamazoo on June 13, and we will both be there, speaking out to protect Beacon Kalamazoo. 

Our growing movement of health care workers, patients, and working families is calling for a complete reversal of the health care cuts in H.R. 1. We are also calling for visionary policies that center care and health for people, not profit for billionaires. 

It’s more urgent now than ever before to fight together in solidarity, millions strong, and demand guaranteed health care with Medicare for All. Michiganders deserve a healthy future, and we will continue fighting in solidarity with fellow working people everywhere to build a society that benefits us all.

Jamie Brown, RN is a critical care nurse at Beacon Kalamazoo Hospital, a member of the Michigan Nurses Association, and president of National Nurses United, the largest U.S. union of registered nurses. 

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is a doctor, epidemiologist, educator, and co-author of “Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide,” who served from 2023 to 2025 as the director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services for Wayne County, Michigan.