Joined by local community members and state legislators, Colom warns Greenwood Leflore is “the beginning, not the end” of a statewide crisis

Hyde-Smith’s vote projected to cost 140,000 Mississippians their health coverage and Mississippi hospitals up to $1 billion over the next decade

District Attorney Colom: “The reason it’s so important that we highlight what’s happening to this hospital is because this is the beginning, this is not the end”

Greenwood, MS — Today, with Greenwood Leflore Hospital facing a potential June 15 closure that would cost 425 jobs and force Delta families to drive more than 30 miles for emergency care, District Attorney Scott Colom held a news conference outside the 120-year-old hospital to warn that the forces threatening to shut it down are not contained to Leflore County. Colom argued that Greenwood Leflore is a preview of a statewide rural hospital crisis made dramatically worse by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s vote for the billionaire’s tax break, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act — legislation that enacted the largest Medicaid cuts in American history.

Colom was joined by Greenwood resident Martha Young, Mississippi Delta native and community advocate Mario Robinson, and Mississippi state legislators including Sen. Justin Pope, Rep. Otis Anthony, and Rep. Tracey Rosebud, who have led the fight for Medicaid expansion and rural health care in the state legislature.

“Greenwood Leflore Hospital behind us. 120 years old. It survived a lot. 425 jobs. As of right now, June 15, it may be closing,” Colom said. “And the reason it’s so important that we highlight what’s happening to this hospital is because this is the beginning. This is not the end.”

Colom laid out the statewide stakes: the Mississippi Hospital Association has projected that Mississippi hospitals could lose up to $1 billion over the next decade as a result of the legislation Hyde-Smith voted for; eight rural Mississippi hospitals are already at risk of closing; and the worst of the federal Medicaid cuts have not yet taken effect.

“According to the Mississippi Hospital Association, [Mississippi] is set to lose a billion dollars,” Colom said. “A billion dollars because of one vote. And the reason we’re cutting a billion dollars for Medicaid in Mississippi is very clear. If you look at what the bill did, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith voted to give people making $600,000 a year a permanent 3% tax cut. Look around Greenwood. Ask yourself, how many people y’all know that make $600,000 a year? Those people live in California. Those millionaires and billionaires, they live in California, they live in New York. They do not live in Mississippi. To pay for that tax cut, she voted to cut a billion dollars for Medicaid.”

Mississippi has never expanded Medicaid — a step that some have said could have helped keep Greenwood Leflore afloat. In February, Senate Medicaid Chairman Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R-Southaven) told the Mississippi Free Press that expansion was off the table this year specifically because of federal funding cuts passed in the billionaire’s tax break: “There is no expansion. There is a reason why — it’s funding, it’s the money aspect of it.”

Colom warned that the consequences of the cuts would not be limited to Mississippians on Medicaid. He shared the story of a Jackson-area emergency room doctor he met on the campaign trail whose friend, who had private health insurance, went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center with mild symptoms, was forced to wait as hospital staff prioritized more urgent cases, eventually went home, and never woke up.

“So if you have health insurance in Mississippi, you have to wake up and realize this is going to affect you,” Colom said. “If we lose eight rural hospitals, that’s gonna impact your health care. It’s going to impact your hospital. This is an issue that Mississippians have to unite around.”

Martha Young, a Greenwood resident who used to receive her care at Greenwood Leflore, spoke about what the hospital’s potential closure would mean for the community.

“Greenwood is right here at our door,” Young said. “Let’s keep it that way.”

Mario Robinson, a Mississippi Delta native whose daughter was born at Greenwood Leflore, spoke about the broader impact of rural hospital closures across Mississippi.

“This isn’t just Greenwood. It’s a Tupelo issue. It’s a Belzoni issue. It’s a rural Mississippi issue. And this matter deserves a senator who’s going to fight to keep rural Mississippi healthy,” Robinson said.

Colom drew a sharp contrast with Hyde-Smith, who has not held a town hall with Mississippians during her time in office.

“While we are dealing with this health care crisis, it’s important to note that our junior senator is nowhere to be found. Nowhere to be found,” Colom said. “She hasn’t done a town hall in six years. Not one time has she offered herself to this community, allowed people to come in, tell her about the pain that we just heard from Martha and Mario. She doesn’t want to hear those stories. She doesn’t want to answer to her votes. And we have to call that out.”

Colom closed by sharing his commitment to make rural hospitals a top priority in the U.S. Senate.

“My commitment to you all is that my number one priority, when we win this election together — because we’re gonna do it together — is that we are going to prioritize accessible and affordable health care all across Mississippi,” Colom said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that communities like Greenwood have the resources they need to treat their citizens, so they can have the jobs in their community, so the young people can have the dignity of a hospital in their community. We have to do that, and we can do it together.”

Greenwood Leflore Hospital filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on April 16 as it negotiates a takeover by the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Mississippi has the most rural emergency hospitals of any state in the country and the highest share of negative-margin hospitals in the country, with at least 60% of Mississippi hospitals operating in the red.

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