MARK STRASSMANN (REPORTER): Dr. Greg Mitchell practices family medicine in West Tennessee. Two-thirds of his patients use Medicaid.
STRASSMANN: You see patients from how far away?
DR. GREG MITCHELL: From about up to 90 miles away you have to travel for services here to come to our hospital system and our clinic.
STASSMAN: Because their hospitals have closed.
MITCHELL: Yes sir.
STRASSMANN: In the last four years, four rural hospitals within an hours drive of here have shut down. Jackson Madison County Hospital, the major healthcare facility between Memphis and Nashville serves 17 counties.
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STRASSMANN: One in five Tennesseans relies on Medicaid, about average for a U.S. state. Medicaid covers half of Tennessee children living in small towns and rural areas. Under proposed Medicaid cuts, by one estimate 37 more Tennessee hospitals risk major cuts or closures. Mitchell worries especially for mothers in labor.
MITCHELL: An issue for them, possibly delivering babies in cars and ambulances and those types of issues that would arise because of the distance they may have to travel to obtain care.
