As some local leaders warn about a looming threat to Cortez’s Southwest Memorial Hospital, the two candidates for Montezuma County commissioner have differing views on the bill causing the threat.
H.R. 1, the Big Beautiful Bill, became law in 2025. It contains a number of cost-cutting measures, including drastic cuts to Affordable Care Act tax credits and Medicaid An independent study found this will mean a reduction in revenues to Southwest Memorial of nearly $10 million a year by 2033.
That amount would be unsustainable for a hospital that has had an operating margin of $1 million to $2 million for the past two years.
says the commissioners need to speak out about what the bill will mean if it remains unchanged.
In an interview with KSJD, Republican candidate Rodney Cox said he values the hospital but he supports H.R. 1 because the nation cannot continue spending more money than it has.
“As a state and as a country, we are in an unsustainable environment,” he said. “We can’t keep spending more than we’re bringing in.”
However, he said the bill is 1100 pages long and though he supports many of its provisions, he probably did not initially understand the impacts it would have to rural hospitals.
Democratic candidate Rebecca Busic told KSJD the measure will mean the end of the hospital as it exists and the commissioners need to speak out about that.
“People are not getting clear information from their elected officials,” she said.
Joe Theine, the CEO for Southwest Health System in Montezuma County, has repeatedly cited an independent study that shows that the cuts in H.R. 1, many of which do not kick in until after the midterms, will mean a loss in revenues of $9.6 million annually for Southwest Memorial by 2033.
The bill’s provisions can be changed, Busic said, “but that relies on a change in leadership from the midterm elections. Otherwise, our hospital as we know it will cease to exist.”
That would have far-reaching consequences, she said.
“That’s not only bad for the health of our people but bad for the economy. It will crush our economy, it will crush our schools, it will crush our property values. There will be so much more than our health care that we lose.”
Cox told KSJD that he agrees the hospital is critical for the community. “We’re so lucky to have that right here, with the Flight for Life,” he said. “People can be transported to another hospital if this one doesn’t have the resources to handle something.”
He said Theine, the hospital board, and the facility itself are doing a great job.
But the county commissioners are limited in what they can do about the hospital, he noted, since they have no direct involvement in it.
“As a commissioner, I wouldn’t have a knob I can turn one way or another to affect that,” Cox said.
“I’m a county-commissioner candidate. I’m not running for president,” he said. “There’s not a lot that a commissioner can do other than work with Joe [Theine] at the hospital and work with the five by five [a roundtable meeting with other county commissions] and work through our congressional leaders and state representatives to try to get a handle on what they’re trying to cut, and why.”
Busic said that the commissioners have a responsibility to speak out.
“As the highest elected officials in the county, they have a direct line to [Third District Congressman] Jeff Hurd,” she said. “It’s imperative they make it clear to him that they understand this bill will close our hospital if it isn’t changed.”
She said that when Theine gives quarterly reports on the state of the hospital and the possible impacts of H.R. 1 to the county commissioners, “their response is, ‘Well, I hope that doesn’t happen.’
“That feels like a weak response from people who claim to be in a powerful position,” she said.
Busic said the commissioners have “a pretty large microphone” and they should reach out to people in the community and tell them what the bill actually means.
“There’s a lot of distrust of something coming from Democrats,” she said. “People think it’s just anti-Trump sentiment.” But if the commissioners would tell people about the impacts of H.R. 1, it might make a difference, she said.
The Trump administration recently announced that nearly $170 million is coming to rural Colorado from the Rural Health Transformation Program. SHS in Montezuma County will get $1.1 million from that fund, but that won’t do much to counteract the long-term effects of H.R. 1.
“It’s like throwing a dog a bone,” Busic said.
Cox said he remains concerned about budgetary costs.
“If you continue to give stuff away, it has to be paid for somewhere,” he said. “As a taxpayer, I would want some of that cut, but on the flip side, who are you hurting?” He said the country needs to “stop doing so many things that are not sustainable.”
Cox said he’d be interested in looking at ways to help the hospital, perhaps through an affordable-housing program for hospital employees. “They’re our third largest employer,” he said. “We are all in this together.”
He said there has to be a balance somewhere between meeting people’s needs and not funding more things than can be paid for. “I don’t have the answer, but I’m more than happy to work with others to find solutions. I believe there’s power in getting a bunch of people together.”
Other rural hospitals are in danger, not just Southwest Memorial, he noted. “This is a hard time we’re in right now.”
Busic said Montezuma County has a sizable population of elderly people and people who rely on Medicaid who will be harmed if the hospital has to cut services or disappears.
“It’s a really serious issue,” she said.
