Trump's health cuts leave 'huge void' in Buffalo, New York - and patients fearing lack of care

[BeyondGeography]

After Rita Buckley slipped on a sidewalk, hitting her jaw so hard she broke four teeth and sustained a traumatic brain injury, she struggled to tell red and green apart. Turning her head could make her lightheaded or, worse, spark a devastating headache. She fought to remember basic daily tasks. Driving became impossible, as did the idea of continuing to work as a nurse. But at Buffalo Therapy Services, a clinic near her home in the suburb of East Aurora, New York, Buckley felt hopeful. For more than a year, she worked diligently with the clinic’s cognitive and occupational therapists. They took her into the darkened staff room and flashed red and green lasers so she could relearn the difference. They taught her to write everything down, to help with her lack of short-term memory. They made a list of what she wanted to accomplish, and told her: “We’re not going to work on what you can’t do any more. We’re going to work on what you can do.”

“They made me focus on my strengths,” Buckley said. “I believe my therapists helped me find a different way to bring meaning and purpose to my life.” But in August, Buffalo Therapy Services’ parent group – Kaleida Health, the largest healthcare provider in western New York – revealed that it would in effect close two of the clinic’s locations, in part due to colossal healthcare funding cuts included in Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending legislation, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Buffalo Therapy Services wasn’t the only casualty: Kaleida also announced plans to shutter a freestanding surgery center and a family planning center. Many patients treated at these facilities now say they have nowhere else to go. The two clinics are technically still open, but not offering clinical services to patients.

… Signed into law this summer, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – as the legislation known as HR 1 is more colloquially known – extends tax cuts from Trump’s first term while ripping at the US social safety net. Over the next three years, the US government will slash more than $1tn in federal healthcare funding by making it more difficult for some people to obtain insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, and shrinking the number of people eligible for Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income people, among dozens of other changes.

Ultimately, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 10 million people will lose health insurance due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That dramatic drop, experts say, will not only keep people who rely on Medicaid from accessing care, but also imperil providers’ ability to offer services and stay open. Entire communities could lose access to healthcare.

Much more at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/19/healthcare-cuts-clinics-buffalo?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other