Martin General Hospital’s closure in 2023 left Martin County, North Carolina with a healthcare system in crisis. Two years after her brother Stanley Sears died from a heart attack, Debra Pierce questions whether the 50-year-old could have survived if the hospital had remained open—emergency crews worked on Sears for a half hour but couldn’t revive him for the long drive to the nearest hospital. The closure has deepened an existing emergency services gap: Martin County has no paramedics on its ambulances, and it can be 20 miles or more to the closest emergency rooms, which are often overcrowded.
The Republican-led $50 billion rural health fund, added to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, is being pitched as a solution to these crises. North Carolina has been earmarked $213 million from the five-year Rural Health Transformation Program, which distributes $10 billion annual increments to states. However, county officials acknowledge the limitations. Drew Batts, Martin County Manager, stated flatly: “The $50 billion is not something that is specifically going to help our situation” and “It’s not going to help us get this place reopened.” Federal regulators restrict how much can be spent on construction and building renovations, and North Carolina distributes funds only to existing health organizations, excluding counties trying to reopen closed hospitals.
County taxpayers have already poured an estimated $2.9 million into maintaining the hospital building in hopes of eventual reopening. The county is now considering spending at least $1.5 million to create two higher-level paramedic units with quick-response vehicles equipped with electrocardiogram equipment. Meanwhile, Martin General’s closure created a 132% increase in daily emergency room visits at ECU Health, the region’s largest system with nine hospitals serving as a de facto safety net for 29 counties. ECU Health’s Greenville hospital—the state’s only Level 1 trauma center east of Raleigh—reported long median emergency room wait and treatment times, longer than 96% of thousands of hospitals reporting nationwide.
Political Uses and Limits
The rural health fund has become central to a closely watched U.S. House race between Democrat Don Davis and Republican Laurie Buckhout. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes the rural fund, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over a decade—cuts projected to hit rural hospitals especially hard. ECU Health CEO Michael Waldrum testified that his system expects to lose a billion dollars over the next 10 years from the looming Medicaid cuts. Rural health executives say the $50 billion fund won’t come close to offsetting those losses.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://kffhealthnews.org/rural-health/rural-health-fund-hospital-closures-north-carolina-martin-general/