Isophoric News · Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Rural hospital cuts become an issue in the race for governor, with Hochul and Blakeman offering different plans, Gothamist reported
Gothamist, reporting for the New York Public News Network, said smaller and rural hospitals face steep cuts as consolidations spread, and that the candidates for governor are trading blame. The report centers on Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson, where Albany Med Health has filed a plan with the state to convert the hospital to a critical access hospital, a federal designation limited to 25 beds with an average stay of four days. Albany Med says the hospital is not using the 70 beds it is staffed for, and an Albany Med spokesperson said all current services would be kept. Critics, including nurse practitioner Sarah Rebekah Garber and the Save CMH Coalition, said patients would have to travel about an hour to Albany, and emergency room nurse Sara Dragula said she worried the ER would become more crowded; Gothamist cited hospital documents saying the hospital typically has 30 to 50 admitted patients. The application to the state Department of Health is pending. The account comes from Gothamist alone; the newsroom did not find a second report. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said Washington has been "basically defunding our hospitals," citing about $10 billion less in health care dollars, and pointed to a $500 million fund for distressed hospitals in this year's budget. Her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman, said he would invest in rural health care but that the state should focus on what he claims is billions in health care fraud, mostly in Medicaid. Iroquois Healthcare Association CEO Kevin Kerwin said hospital finances are fragile, and the association tied the pressure to the federal law H.R. 1. Assemblymember Josh Jensen, the lead Republican on the Assembly health committee, agreed H.R. 1 will be challenging for hospitals but pointed to more than $200 million for New York in its Rural Health Transportation Program and said consolidation can give communities a backstop.