NORTH PLATTE- Following the Legislature's decision to uphold two of Gov. Pillen's several vetoes, many in western Nebraska expressed despair at the potential impacts. Just over two weeks ago, Gov. Pillen struck down a second year of increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates and millions of dollars earmarked to build Rural Workforce Housing. Dr. Jed Hansen, executive director of the Nebraska Rural Health Association, called the upheld vetoes a "gut punch."

According to Dr. Hansen, all of Nebraska's hospitals and nursing homes will be negatively impacted by the governor's decision, but especially those situated in more rural or remote parts of the state, where more than 60% of hospitals operated at a deficit last year. "So, the narrative the governor had used, that hospitals were better off financially coming out of the pandemic, just wasn't true," asserted Dr. Hansen, "And [that] especially wasn't true for our rural hospitals."

Johnathan Hladik, policy director for the Center for Rural Affairs, echoed a similar sentiment for the lack of Rural Workforce Housing funding, calling it the "number on workforce issue" plaguing rural Nebraska. Hladik went on to state that, because of the high cost of building in rural areas, developers will not start such projects on their own without funding from the government, which the governor vetoed. Dr. Hansen also stated that felt betrayed by the vetoes. "We feel that those areas--mental health, maternal care, family care--have been important to [Gov. Pillen]," said Hansen, "He's expressed that those are values that are important to him. And this veto, we just feel, doesn't line up with that."

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