Kim Schrier Warns Enchantments and Rural Hospitals Face Growing Challenges

Congresswoman Kim Schrier visited Leavenworth on July 10.

She toured local businesses, spoke with local leaders in land management, and visited Cascade Medical Center.

Business owners discuss tariffs and rising costs

Schrier said she had an excellent visit downtown and talked with local businesses about some struggles concerning tariffs and rising costs.

"Overall, this is a very special downtown, and they are thriving, and it was very exciting to visit with business owners."

Enchantments overcrowding dominates roundtable

READ MORE: Schrier Calls for Enchantments Improvements

Schrier then participated in a roundtable discussion concerning the Enchantments Wilderness Area, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service. Schrier said staffing and funding cuts under the Trump administration have affected management of the Enchantments. At the same time, social media has made the Enchantments more popular than ever.

Participants suggested several potential improvements, including a permit system for day use, a gate to limit parking, a shuttle, and better staffing.

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President of the Leavenworth Mountain Association Chris Simrell said that funding won't replace valuable education on conservation and well-prepared hiking. Even then, he said, the area needs adequate infrastructure.

"You can put up as many signs as you want, you can play as many videos as you want, you can create as many videos as you want, but ultimately, the resource itself needs to have adequate infrastructure for use," Simrell said. "I don't think you can necessarily put the cat back in the bag where you only see 10 people up there, so there's going to be an amount of use there that is going to be less than it is now, but is going to be significant."

Calls for more Forest Service staffing

Schrier said that the Enchantments have seen an increase of day-use visitors from around 200 per day to thousands per day.

"Bottom line from the roundtable was, we've got to do something about the number of visitors, and nobody wants to hear that," Schrier said. "The reality is if we want this special place to be there for future generations, we're going to have to do something about the number of day-use visitors... It's not sustainable or safe."

Schrier added she has been calling on the Forest Service to increase staffing to address sanitation and visitor management. She said there has been some good that has come from the effort, including adding more seasonal workers, but it has not been enough.

Rural hospitals face funding concerns

Schrier finished her visit with a tour of Cascade Medical Center. She said she focused on the impact on rural critical care hospitals as a result of cuts to Medicaid and Medicare in an area with high utilization of these programs. She also mentioned the One Big Beautiful Bill's elimination of health insurance tax credits to make health insurance cheaper.

"When you have a lot of uninsured people crowding emergency rooms, hospitals will be providing care without any compensation, and that's going to put this hospital in threat of closing," Schrier said. "Not to mention the people who get sick and sicker without receiving care."

Those concerns are particularly significant in Chelan County. Approximately 23% of Washington residents receive Medicaid, also known as Apple Health, while roughly 18% of residents utilize Medicare. Chelan County's Apple Health usage is 23.8%, and its Medicare enrollment is 20.8%, according to a 2023 Georgetown University study.