California Adventist Health Hospitals At Risk Due To President Donald Trump’s Bill
28 July 2025 |
According to a local California news outlet, The Fresno Bee, Adventist Health’s 8 hospitals and 131 clinics in the Central Valley are at risk of closure after United States President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” gutted healthcare for many United States citizens. The bill promises to cut $1 trillion in funding from Medicaid, America’s public healthcare program, over the next 10 years. The bill is problematic for many vulnerable demographics, especially those with limited access to healthcare, such as many residents of the Central Valley.
“These changes carry significant implications for health systems across the country, particularly in rural and underserved areas like California’s Central Valley,” said Tim Haydock, Central California network operations executive for Adventist Health, to The Fresno Bee. Haydock continued by saying Adventist Health is “carefully reviewing the legislation.”
Adventist Health Reedley and Adventist Health Tehachapi were named in a June 12 letter from “democratic members of the U.S. Senate to the Trump Administration” among 300 nationwide rural hospitals that could be at risk of closure due to the bill.
The article continues:
According to an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, substantial cuts to Medicaid payments, also known as Medi-Cal in California, could increase the number of unprofitable rural hospitals and elevate their risk of financial distress. Medi-Cal payments to Adventist Health in Reedley totaled $125.8 million, or 66%, of net patient revenue in fiscal year 2023, according to the California Health Care Foundation.
UC Berkeley Labor Center has determined that 15 million Californians are on Medicaid. 54% of Fresno County’s population is on Medi-Cal.
Rather than medical criteria based on accuracy or service, the criteria determining which hospitals are at risk are financial. “The hospital is either in the top 10% Medicaid payer mix of rural hospitals across the country or has experienced three consecutive years of negative total margin.”
It is unknown how many other Adventist Health, Advent Health, or Kettering Health clinics and hospitals are at risk nationwide; however, the repercussions will be significant for rural and low-income citizens.
