Article snippet: A study commissioned by the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future and conducted by Navigant Consulting found that “adding a government-run insurance plan could decimate rural hospitals.” Former Vice President Joe Biden’s healthcare plan would create a “public option,” allowing a government health insurance option to compete with private health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges. The Navigant Consulting study finds that having millions of Americans switch from their private insurance plan to the public option plan, the public option would pay hospitals at Medicare rates, which is typically lower than private insurance, and cut rural hospitals’ revenues between $4.2 billion and $25.6 billion. The study found that as many as 55 percent of rural hospitals, or 1,037 hospitals across 46 states, could become at risk of closure from a public option. The closure of those rural hospitals represents more than 63,000 staffed beds and 420,000 employees. Even if rural hospitals were not to close as the result of the creation of a public option, the study finds that the public option could negatively impact access to and quality of care through elimination of rural hospitals’ services and reduction of clinical and administrative staff and cripple the rural communities the hospitals serve. To make matters worse for public option supporters, the study suggested that to prevent hospitals from closing under the public option system, Medicare would have to increase payments... Link to the full article to read more