{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-visits-rural-hospital-facing-3-3-million-in-annual-cuts-due-to-gop-tax-bill/", "ICYMI: Warnock Visits Rural Hospital Facing $3.3 Million in Annual Cuts Due to GOP Tax Bill", "2025-09-02", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "GA", "Raphael G. Warnock", "W000790", "www.warnock.senate.gov", "warnock", "https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Reverend Warnock visited Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton, Georgia\n\nThe hospital is forced to cut $3.3 million annually to break even because of the GOP tax bill, which will kick 750,000 Georgians off their health care\n\nPhotos available HERE\n\nClaxton, GA \u2013 Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) visited Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton, Georgia to discuss the risks to rural health care access following steep cuts to Medicaid in the recently passed GOP tax law. Evans Memorial Hospital, a lifeline for rural Georgians, is forced to cut $3.3 million annually to break even due to the GOP tax bill, which will kick 750,000 Georgians off their health care. When rural hospitals have to provide care to people without insurance who cannot afford their medical bills, it makes it more likely that hospitals will be forced to cut services or close their doors. The GOP tax bill\u2019s health care cuts could mean Evans Memorial will have to scale back intensive care unit (ICU) or cardio-pulmonary rehab services. Recently, Evans Memorial Hospital had to shutter its labor and delivery unit because it was no longer financially viable.\n\nThe inappropriately named One Big Beautiful Bill puts pressure on hospitals to close, putting more than 16,000 rural healthcare jobs at risk, according to the GA Hospital Association. The GOP Tax bill will kick up to 93,000 Georgians off Medicaid and raise premiums on 1.2 million Georgians who get their health insurance on the marketplace, or Georgia Access. About 52% of kids in rural areas in Georgia are covered by Medicaid, according to Georgetown University\u2019s Center for Children and Families (CCF).\n\nMedia coverage of Senator Warnock\u2019s visit to Evans Memorial Hospital can be found below:\n\nWJCL: Georgia US Senator visits Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton\n\nMany rural hospitals are struggling to stay vibrant, and some are even in danger of closing.\n\nThere are some who believe that the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill will put even more in peril.\n\nWith that as a backdrop, Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock paid a visit to Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton.\n\nGeorgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock was an extremely interested observer Monday afternoon as he got a firsthand look at the operations of Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton.\n\nSenator Warnock was also a concerned observer, worried about the viability of these rural hospitals in the wake of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.\n\n\u201cThe folks in this building do heroic work every single day, and often they are doing it, against great odds,\u201d said Warnock. \u201cAnd sadly, those odds have been increased.\u201d\n\nEvans Memorial Hospital president and CEO Bill Lee was grateful for the senator\u2019s visit.\n\n\u201cThis is about relevance and survivability,\u201d said Lee. \u201cAnd so for the senator to take time to come and try to understand and hear from our team, that here are some of the issues that we really fight on a daily battle basis. It\u2019s exciting to me to be able to have him take time and come visit with our team.\u201d\n\nWarnock, though, is hoping it won\u2019t come to that.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not too late for Congress to turn back, to make a course correction and ensure that hospitals like Evans Memorial not only survive, but thrive,\u201d said Warnock.\n\nAJC: Georgia\u2019s rural hospitals tighten budgets ahead of Medicaid, ACA changes\n\nBut without changes to federal funding plans, Evans faces a $3.3 million budget shortfall next year, CEO Bill Lee said Monday.\n\nLee, his fellow administrators and even nurses and physicians made their case to U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. The Democrat toured Evans Memorial as part of a multi-stop swing through the state to raise awareness of the impact President Donald Trump\u2019s federal spending plan \u2014 known as the \u201cbig beautiful bill\u201d\u2014 will have on Georgians.\n\nWarnock on Monday praised \u201cthe folks in this building who do heroic work every single day.\n\n\u201cAnd often they are doing it against great odds, and sadly, those odds have been increased by the GOP bill that was recently passed,\u201d Warnock told reporters in a press conference following the tour. \u201cWhen I think about the work that these folks have to do in this building, that bill is not beautiful at all.\u201d\n\nWarnock called on congressional Republicans, such as U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island, to \u201ccourse correct\u201d on their health care decisions. Carter\u2019s district stretches the length of the Georgia coast and covers 15 counties, 13 of them rural, including two that border Evans County. Carter, a retired pharmacist, supported the GOP bill and said the Medicaid changes target waste, fraud and abuse and that the legislation\u2019s tax breaks increase health care accessibility and affordability.\n\n\u201cGeorgia\u2019s senators have never treated patients \u2014 as a pharmacist, I have, and I understand the importance of providing accessible, affordable, and quality health care to Georgians,\u201d he said.\n\nWTOC: Local rural hospital losing millions of dollars following cuts from One Big Beautiful Bill Act\n\nDemocratic Senator Raphael Warnock visited Evans Memorial and looked at not only their new services, but services they will be forced to cut due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.\n\n\u201cLet me tell you I have not seen people more committed to their work. The folks in this building do heroic work,\u201d said Senator Warnock.\n\nSenator Warnock says some hospitals will be forced to close.\n\n\u201cThis is a matter of life and death and in spite of the heroic work that people in this building are doing every single day,\u201d said Senator Warnock. \u201cIt increases the likely hood of this hospital or hospitals like it will close. Or if they don\u2019t close, they will have to face critical services.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-visits-rural-hospital-facing-3-3-million-in-annual-cuts-due-to-gop-tax-bill/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9921039454638958, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}