As someone who has spent decades in hospitals – first as a nurse and hospital administrator and later as a Board member – I’ve seen firsthand how fragile life can be when people don’t have access to healthcare. That’s why I’m deeply alarmed by current efforts in Congress to cut Medicaid. If they succeed, it won’t be some far-off problem. It will hit us here at home, hard.
In small towns like Cuero, Medicaid isn’t some abstract line item. It’s what keeps our hospitals open, what helps seniors fill prescriptions, and how working parents cover doctor visits when they’re already stretching every dollar to keep food on the table.
Cutting Medicaid would mean rural hospitals, including the ones we depend on, could be forced to shut their doors. That’s not a guess: it’s a pattern we’ve seen in Texas and across the country whenever Medicaid support dries up. Since 2010, nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed and an additional 700 are at risk. And once a hospital closes, it rarely reopens. The next time someone suffers a heart attack or a serious accident, help may be 30 or 40 miles away—if they can get there in time.
Hospitals are the backbone of communities, and we are lucky to have Cuero Regional Hospital as our first line of defense to provide vital emergency services, childbirth care, ICU, high-tech imaging, and more. Available 24/7, our talented and hardworking healthcare providers and staff are there when we need them most.
Some members of Congress argue that these cuts are about reducing waste, fraud and abuse. But what they call waste, I call neighbors. Real people who need real care— mothers trying to manage a child’s diabetes, seniors living on fixed incomes, and veterans who returned home to find that healthcare isn't as accessible as it should be. Further, data shows us that the majority of Medicaid recipients are working despite current efforts to implement work requirements. And the small percentage who aren’t are busy attending school, have a chronic disability, or are full-time caregivers to a loved one. Potential work requirements is another roundabout way of limiting access to vital care.
We can have honest debates about how to improve our healthcare system, but gutting programs like Medicaid and Medicare is not reform -- it’s a direct cut of lifesaving healthcare and will abandon the very people who rely on it the most. We all want efficiency, but we aren’t looking at the right place.
We are a community that looks out for each other. That’s what drew me to nursing in the first place, and it’s what guided me through years as an administrator and current hospital Board member. I’ve seen the best in people when they’re supported, not sidelined. Medicaid supports families through tough times, and it keeps our health system alive.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about protecting our clinics, our emergency rooms, our providers, and our neighbors. If Congress wants to serve the people, it must protect Medicaid. Because without it, we’ll all feel the cost.
Faye Sheppard is a long-time Cuero resident and current Vice-Chairman for the Cuero Regional Hospi-
