After 50 years of treating patients in this North Texas town of 5,000, Bowie Memorial had been laid low by shaky finances and the indifference of citizens. Two weeks before the closing ceremony, voters went to the polls in Montague County to decide whether to approve a hospital tax district, which would have pumped much-needed revenue into the hospital. Run by a volunteer board appointed by the Bowie City Council, Bowie Memorial had hemorrhaged millions over the years as administrators struggled to serve an aging, poor and underinsured population. But anti-tax forces in the community saw the district as another government bailout; some didn’t even believe the hospital would close.
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