care for that would have been covered under this program but the expansion of medicaid would not have altered this decision." it's hard to overstate how important the hospital is to the town of bellhaven. it serves a county and a half and is the largest employer in the town. if it closes, o'neal says residents would have to drive to the nearest emergency room. chris noble, methodist minister in town says he's alive today because of pungo. what happened? >> january 12th, sunday morning, 2:00 a.m. i had a heart attack in the parsonage down here. i coded. they air flighted me to greenfield. if it hadn't been for this emergency room, you wouldn't be interviewing me right now. >> right now hospital is scheduled to close july 1st. despite vidant's statements, mayor o'neal blames his fellow republicans in the capitol. >> if the legislature isn't going to accept medicaid expansion, they need to come up with their own program to help these rural hospitals.