More hospitals in rural and impoverished communities begin to close in escalating numbers.
Date: 1980s
After the expansion of hospital and healthcare systems over the previous 20 years, the balance between building and closing hospitals begins to shift. Hospital closures particularly impact rural areas, especially poor Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities, where hospitals rely mainly on the government for nonprofit funding. Urban hospitals are generally owned by private entities and are considered to be more profitable. While rural hospital closures harm all rural residents, studies will show that they disproportionately impact working-class Black and Latinx communities.