US hospitals expand and build as Medicaid cuts threaten billions in revenue
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The gist
Washington hospitals expect to lose nearly $6 billion in revenue through 2033 from Medicaid cuts.
The building boom and the cuts are reshaping who can afford care and where.
Background
This week's hospital news spans the country: Boston's Dana-Farber broke ground on a $1.7 billion cancer hospital, the Duke Endowment gave $100 million toward a new North Carolina children's system, and Texas marked a construction milestone on a $452 million state psychiatric hospital. At the same time, a Washington state report projected hospitals there will lose nearly $6 billion in revenue through 2033 because of Medicaid cuts, and North Carolina systems are racing to expand and competing for state permission to add beds. Medicaid is the joint federal-state health program for low-income people; the cuts were passed by Republicans, who said they were needed to protect the program from waste, fraud and abuse.
How it unfolded
- Oct 19, 2026Dana-Farber holds a ceremonial groundbreaking for a 14-story, $1.7 billion cancer hospital at the former Joslin Diabetes Center site in Boston's Longwood Medical Area.
- Oct 20, 2026Sen. Maria Cantwell and local healthcare leaders hold a news conference at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center on expected revenue losses from Medicaid cuts.
- Oct 20, 2026A report from Washington state hospital and community health associations says state hospitals expect to lose nearly $6 billion in revenue through 2033 due to Medicaid cuts.
- Oct 21, 2026The Duke Endowment announces a $100 million grant for North Carolina Children's, a planned independent pediatric health system in Apex.
- Oct 22, 2026McLean Hospital, part of Mass General Brigham, announces a new McLean Center for Metabolic Psychiatry funded by a $20 million grant from Baszucki Group.
- Oct 22, 2026A patient at Centerpoint Hospital in Independence, Missouri, is accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, who was visiting him; James F. Lawson is charged with second-degree murder.
- Oct 23, 2026Texas HHSC celebrates placement of the final steel beam for the new $452 million, 225-bed Wichita Falls State Hospital, expected to be completed in late 2027.
- Oct 23, 2026North Carolina Health News reports hospital systems are spending billions to expand across the state and fighting over state permission to add beds.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Sen. Maria Cantwell said lowering the cost of uncompensated care helps keep healthcare costs in check, and that failing to do so drives up costs for everyone.
- Party
- Republicans said the cuts, amounting to over $900 billion over the next decade nationwide, were necessary to protect the program from waste, fraud and abuse.
- Support
- Duke Endowment board chair Charles Lucas III called the North Carolina Children's project "unique in scope" and "unique in ambition," with the potential to transform children's health care across both Carolinas.
- Analysts
- Washington-based hospital consultant Dr. Lisa Bielamowicz said a standalone cancer center has "a certain exclusivity," but integration and access to other specialties in such a center is "really, really important."