While the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed by Congress in late March, allocated hundreds of billions in bailouts and financial aid in the form of low-interest loans. Legislators are realizing, however, that they left a major hole in the bill: no funding for government-owned hospitals.

While private hospitals are eligible to apply for the small business loans included in the CARES Act, local, municipal-owned hospitals are not, and would require a legal exemption passed by congress to include them. These municipal-owned hospitals, about six hundred of them, are disproportionately located in sparsely populated, rural areas that were already facing a healthcare crisis before the pandemic.

For years, rural hospitals have suffered from a lack of money, a lack of equipment, and a lack of doctors. When people graduate from medical schools, they’re much more likely to begin practice along the wealthier coasts than in the middle of the country, where they’d be paid less. And with a general deficit of sufficient funding, these hospitals are ill-equipped to respond to the coronavirus pandemic due to their lack of bed space and ventilators.

The fund created by the CARES Act to support small business, which totaled in the hundreds of billions of dollars, is nearly exhausted after only two weeks of applications. Senate Republicans have proposed passing a new spending measure to benefit small businesses, while Democrats are insisting any new stimulus measure must be more far-ranging.

It’s likely any new legislation would include new exemptions so state-owned hospitals are eligible to receive financial relief. In a new public letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, nine senators are lobbying for this. They represent rural states directly affected by the oversight, including West Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, and Idaho.

“Our small rural hospitals regularly struggle with their razor-thin margins but are now facing difficult choices that range from significant staff furloughs to permanently closing the doors of their community’s lone hospital,” wrote the senators. “Many of these hospitals are small, county-owned public hospitals who are currently denied access to funding included by Congress in the CARES Act.”

“These hospitals are often not only an important care provider but are also one of the largest employers in many small towns. The health and economic burdens of these institutions shutting down due to temporary cash-flow complications during this crisis is something that is entirely avoidable,” they continued, making similar points as the National Rural Health Association. “Many of these hospitals are the sole provider for health needs in their community and their closure would leave wide areas of America with even greater access to care issues than ever before, which we simply cannot risk during this pandemic.”

Hunter DeRensis is the senior reporter for the National Interest. Follow him on Twitter @HunterDeRensis. 

Image: Reuters.