HOSPITAL CLOSURES

A decrease of services continue to decline in the U.S.  Closures of rural hospitals are becoming a real problem, especially in the South.  Following is a map of hospital closures and quotes from the references (in italics).

There has been a total of 83 rural hospital closures in the United States from January 2010 to January 2018, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program, a group which tracks rural hospital closures across the country.
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The reasons for rural hospital closures vary for every community but can include decreased demand for inpatient services, consolidation in the health-care space, and a state's decision of whether to expand Medicaid, Mark Holmes, director of NC RHRP, told CNBC.

(Click on figure to enlarge.  The map is by Tableau)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/rural-hospital-closures-force-towns-to-take-action.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/heres-a-map-of-where-rural-hospital-closures-are-happening-in-the-us.html