Medicare at 61: Trumbull County Residents Rally to Reopen Warren Hospital
WARREN, Ohio — As Americans celebrate Medicare’s 61st birthday, Trumbull County residents will gather to honor one of the nation’s most important health-care programs—and to demand the restoration of hospital care in Warren.
The “Medicare at 61: Reopen Our Hospital” rally will take place Saturday August 1, 2026 from 10 am to 1:00 pm at 1350 E. Market St., Warren, OH, 44483 Residents, former hospital employees, health-care advocates, elected officials and other community members are invited to attend.
Medicare was created in 1965 with a promise: Older Americans should not be denied medical care because they cannot afford it. Sixty-one years later, that promise is incomplete when an entire community loses access to a full-service hospital.
Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull is closed after Insight Health System surrendered its hospital operating license to the Ohio Department of Health in January 2026. The surrender followed months of operational interruptions, licensing problems and the suspension of emergency services.
The crisis began before Insight’s involvement. Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital were threatened with closure during the bankruptcy of their former owner, Steward Health Care. Insight Health System subsequently assumed control of the Warren facilities, presenting the acquisition as an effort to preserve local health-care services.
Instead, hospital operations were interrupted in March 2025. Insight briefly reopened the hospital in October 2025 but soon lost its federal provider agreement. Emergency services and active operations were suspended in November amid state concerns involving patient care and heating. In January, Insight surrendered the operating license, leaving the building’s future uncertain.
Hundreds of workers were laid off, patients lost nearby emergency and inpatient services, and families were left traveling farther for care. Former employees filed a federal class-action lawsuit alleging unpaid wages and violations of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Local, state and federal officials have also called for investigations into the handling of public funds, financial transactions and the circumstances surrounding the hospital closures. Read further
Trumbull County deserves answers—but it also urgently needs action.
Celebrating Medicare means defending the principle that health care is a public necessity, not merely a financial opportunity. Residents must stand together and insist that state and federal leaders help recruit a qualified, financially responsible and independent health-care system capable of reopening the hospital and restoring emergency, inpatient and other essential services.
We
celebrate Medicare’s history by fighting for the future of health care
in Trumbull County. Reopen our hospital. Restore local care. Protect
lives.
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