Access to health care in New York’s North Country continues to be a major challenge. WAMC’s Pat Bradley listened in as providers detailed what they have been facing.
Vicki Davis-Courson is the Eastern Regional director of the New York State Nurses Association and a nurse at the UVM Health Network CVPH Medical Center in Plattsburgh. She says there is a health care crisis, and access to care is one of the most significant challenges for rural communities.
“As federal health care funding cuts North Country hospitals will have important choices to make. We want a secure future for our health care systems. That means preserving services, fighting for increased access to care and ensuring that hospitals maintain care locally.”
Davis-Courson was taking part in a virtual forum Wednesday hosted by NYSNA. The challenges detailed during the event echoed findings of an August report by New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli that looked at 16 rural New York counties, including Essex and Washington.
The report found “alarming” staffing shortfalls in several treatment areas, including primary care, pediatrics, gynecology and mental health.
A presentation Wednesday by NYSNA researcher Sivan Rosenthal outlined facility closures and cuts across the North Country over the past 10 years. These cuts affect pediatric, pregnancy and behavioral health services.
“Hospitals in the North Country have basically continuously reduced services and hospital beds throughout the last decade and that has made it harder for people who live there to access necessary health care.”
Marvin Shaw works at CVPH in Plattsburgh and is a member of 1199 SEIU, Service Employees International Union, which has more than 3,000 members in the North Country and over 400,000 across the state. Shaw says heath care services and his work are under attack.
“The Trump Administration has voted to cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid and these cuts are devastating. Losing this federal income means that there’s going to be cuts to hospital funding, clinic funding, nursing home funding and home care funding. This cannot be allowed to happen.”
The comptroller’s reported noted that in the 16 counties examined, 27% of the population were enrolled in Medicaid as of May 2025. While part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates $10 billion a year in federal funding through 2030 to support rural health care facilities, DiNapoli’s report said it’s “unclear” if this funding will make up for the impact of Medicaid cuts included in the law.
Those who participated in Wednesday’s forum detailed what they are dealing with on the ground in the North Country.
Davis-Courson, who once lived in Massena, noted that maternity care services in that city on the St. Lawrence River have closed and pregnant women must travel hours to a hospital with labor and delivery units.
“When patients must travel long distances or navigate limited local options it puts their health at risk.”
NYSNA Board Member Bill Schneider is a nurse at the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.
“It’s the only place to have a baby between Canton, Potsdam and Plattsburgh currently. Because we work in rural hospitals, we face unique geographic challenges and financial pressures. We need hospitals to keep services open, even the unprofitable ones because health care shouldn’t be about making profits. It should be about delivering needed care.”
Plattsburgh resident Kim Hartshorn said he is concerned how cuts to hospitals will impact the overall state budget.
“This is not really not just a health care issue because it’s going to affect the entire state budget. Everybody’s going to be affected.”
