The New Deal Built Hospitals in Missouri. The 1% Are Shutting Them Down.

Above: This graphic shows 20 hospitals built in Missouri from 1933 to 1939 with funding from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA). Image from America Builds: The Record of PWA, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939, p. 269.

Above: This graphic is from the Missouri Hospital Association, and shows hospital closures from 2014 to 2024. Image used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) also engaged in hospital construction in Missouri. The description for this photograph, taken in December 1937, reads: "Fulton State Hospital No. 1 [Missouri] - New wing on old building - all work by the WPA." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The WPA also helped staff hospitals in Missouri, for example, with nurses and sanitation workers. The description for this photograph, taken in July 1936, reads: "Pharmacists employed by WPA are shown working in St. Louis Hosp. #1. The employment of these men as assistants in public institutions is part of the Missouri WPA program. They are mixing medicine for the charity patients of the hospital." Photo from the National Archives.

The 1% Are Shutting Down Our Hospitals

The New Deal had an extensive public health program, including the construction of many new hospitals, many of them built in rural areas. Today, the 1% are shutting down hospitals, all across the country, in their never-ending quest for tax cuts, profits, and the destruction of programs that help the middle-class and poor. Rural communities are being hit the hardest, because the 1% realize that less populated areas have less profit potential or require too much government funding, i.e., taxes. (This is the same reason that the 1% did not want to provide electricity to rural areas - a problem that the New Deal solved with the Rural Electrification Administration.)

In a recent article in The Mexico Ledger (Mexico, Missouri) we hear about the pain and suffering that the 1% are willfully inflicting on rural Americans:

"For Elizabeth Berry, 72, and Randy Dickson, 63, not having a hospital means more than not having a place to get the care they need. There is another layer of difficulty when it comes to actually getting to the closest hospital, which, for most in the Mexico area, is about 40 miles away in Columbia.

"'You pretty much know, if you have an emergency, you are in serious trouble,' Dickson said. 'It's a bad situation. And when you do get down there, it's so crowded that you can't get in. You have people who are being treated in the waiting area.'

"These struggles impact everyone in the area and the impact is greatest on people who are older, can't drive or have health issues and are on their own.

"'The only way I can get there is in an ambulance, and I can't afford it,' Dickson said. 'So if I have an emergency, I just have to hope I don't die before I get there.'

"Berry's husband died after years of battling kidney failure and heart issues. She is still struggling to pay off the debt that came with his medical bills, which were exacerbated by the lack of local care.

"'He had to be airlifted a number of times or had to take an ambulance because of his issues, and I am still dealing with the bills that are coming in for transportation,' Berry said."

(From: "'And that’s all gone': Rural health centers in Missouri close, end continuous local care," The Mexico Ledger (Mexico, Missouri), September 24, 2025).

Why all this suffering? Answer: The 1% want more tax cuts and profits so they can buy more luxury items--sports cars, 4th or 5th mansions, private islands, luxury doomsday bunkers, jewelry, $50,000 dollar dresses and watches, etc.--and if the poor and old have to die in the process, so be it. This is why mega-yacht sales are on the rise at the same time rural hospitals are shutting down.

Hopefully, one day, the working-class will realize that the 1% are not their good buddies. But until that day comes--until they stop relying on billionaires to "lead" them--they will be experiencing a lot of unnecessary illness, pain, and death.