BREAKING: “Hinson Says Clinic Closure Talk is ‘Lying by Omission.’ State Records Tell Another Story”
Iowa Starting Line: “Since Hinson Took Federal Office in 2021, 842 Licensed Healthcare Entities Have Closed in Iowa […] Including Two Hospitals, a Critical Access Hospital, 11 Rural health Clinics, [and] 46 Nursing Homes”
Iowa Starting Line: “By Any Count, Iowa Has Lost Far More Healthcare Facilities Than it Has Gained Since 2021”
DES MOINES – A new report from Iowa Starting Line reveals that Ashley Hinson is lying to Iowans by downplaying the number of health clinics closing in Iowa.
Hinson claimed critics are “ignoring the fact that in other places new clinics have opened.” The truth is, state records show that “by any count, Iowa has lost far more healthcare facilities than it has gained since 2021,” when Hinson took office.
In fact, since Hinson got to Congress, 842 healthcare clinics have closed, including “two hospitals, a critical access hospital, 11 rural health clinics, 46 nursing homes, 28 residential care facilities, 16 hospice facilities, and three ambulatory surgical centers.”
Today’s breaking report comes after Hinson voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, which many Iowa health clinics are citing as the reason for their shuttering.
Missed the report? See below for key highlights:
Iowa Starting Line: Hinson says clinic closure talk is ‘lying by omission.’ State records tell another story
- US Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican, says pointing to the state’s healthcare clinic closures as evidence of healthcare becoming less accessible in Iowa isn’t the full story.
- “I guess they’re lying by omission is the way I would say that,” the Republican Senate candidate said on WHO Radio’s Simon Conway Show on July 9, arguing that critics of her healthcare record are “ignoring the fact that in other places new clinics have opened.” Hinson told listeners to “look at the full picture.”
- The state keeps track of health facility closures and openings. And according to that record, openings have not kept pace with closures.
- Since Hinson took federal office in 2021, 842 licensed healthcare entities have closed in Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing’s health facilities database. […] the closures also include two hospitals, a critical access hospital, 11 rural health clinics, 46 nursing homes, 28 residential care facilities, 16 hospice facilities, and three ambulatory surgical centers.
- Over the same period, the database records 468 entities opening. […] by any count, Iowa has lost far more healthcare facilities than it has gained since 2021.
- Iowa Starting Line reached out to Hinson about the discrepancy between this data and her remarks on the radio. Her office did not respond by press time.
- Hinson’s own examples show how that math works on the ground. On the radio, she pointed to a new clinic in Traer as proof of expanding access.
- What Hinson left out is why it exists. Traer’s previous clinic, run by MercyOne, closed in December. Peoples moved into the same building. […] This is notable since Medicaid is the same program Hinson and the rest of the GOP congressional delegation voted to cut by nearly $1 trillion under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- The companies closing Iowa facilities have been clear about what factors are squeezing their bottom line. When MercyOne ended labor and delivery in Clinton in May and shuttered its South Des Moines urgent care and family medicine clinics in June, it cited “recent and expected government funding and policy changes across Medicaid and Medicare.”
- The data shows Iowa’s health infrastructure is trying to do more with fewer options that are more spread out.
###