Stacy Garrity can’t champion rural hospitals while cheering a bill that will shut them down
Garrity doesn’t vote in Washington. But her support of the "Big Beautiful Bill" suggests she’s willing to gamble with the health of rural Pennsylvanians for the sake of a 2026 gubernatorial bid.
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity says she’s spent her life protecting rural hospitals. She prides herself on being from a rural community and argues that her roots help her understand what’s at stake for those who live in the more rustic corners of the commonwealth. She also says she’s a champion of transparency.
But what’s transparent about cheering a bill that would quietly rip healthcare away from more than 11 million Americans, including over 300,000 Pennsylvanians, and gut the funding rural hospitals rely on?
When I led the Department of Human Services here in Pennsylvania under Gov. Tom Wolf, I saw firsthand how crucial Medicaid coverage is to the health of rural communities.
More than 737,000 Medicaid recipients live in Pennsylvania’s rural counties, so rural hospitals in particular are reliant on these programs to remain afloat. These hospitals are operating on razor-thin margins as it is, and as the law’s Medicaid cuts are passed, up to 25 rural hospitals could close across Pennsylvania. These closures would not only limit access to care but would also decimate major employers in these communities.
The so-called Big Beautiful Bill may have had a catchy name, but beneath the surface, it was a devastating proposal. Nonpartisan budget experts at the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would add trillions to the deficit while cutting Medicaid by nearly a trillion dollars. This wasn’t a plan to make healthcare more accessible — it was a political move to score points with Donald Trump.
So, who is benefiting from this bill that will rip healthcare away from hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, close rural hospitals, and raise healthcare costs across Pennsylvania, all while blowing up the deficit?
Trump’s wealthy friends are going to get another tax break out of all this. That’s what these healthcare cuts are paying for.
Many Pennsylvanians who are enrolled in Medicaid don’t even know it.
Garrity doesn’t vote in Washington. But her public endorsement of this bill sent a clear signal: She’s willing to gamble with the health of rural Pennsylvanians for the sake of a likely 2026 gubernatorial bid.
Many Pennsylvanians who are enrolled in Medicaid don’t even know it. They think they have coverage through “UPMC for You” or “Geisinger Health Plan” — privately managed care plans funded by Medicaid dollars. That disconnect makes it easier for leaders to talk about “reform” without ever saying what’s really being taken away.
Meanwhile, this bill did nothing to rein in the insurance companies that made record profits during the pandemic. It propped up outdated systems instead of investing in the future of care. And it offered rural communities the illusion of support — while pulling the rug out from under them.
If Garrity truly values transparency, she should be honest about what this bill does — and whom it hurts. If she’s serious about rural hospitals, she should not support legislation that would close their doors.
Pennsylvania deserves leadership rooted in reality, not rhetoric. Medicaid is essential to our rural health infrastructure. Undermining it will hurt the very communities Garrity claims to represent.
Meg Snead is the former acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and former secretary of policy and planning for Gov. Tom Wolf.