Facing rural health of $ 50 billion, questions and doubts

The stampede at the last minute was left to add a 50 billion -dollar rural health program to President Donald Trump’s huge tax, hospital spending and clinic leaders at the country level, but they are confused.

The Rural Health Program for Federal Organizers calls for a delivery of $ 10 billion annually for a period of five years, starting from the fiscal year 2026.

“Satan is in detail in terms of implementation.”

Hohman, whose organization represents 5600 rural health clinics: “Investing this amount and this method in rural areas – we hope that it will go to rural areas – is the type of investment in which we and other defenders work for it for a long time.”

People who live in countryside spaces in the country have more chronic diseases, die younger, and earn less money. These guaranteed factors have financially stumbled on rural health infrastructure, which leads to the closure of hospitals and the widespread stopping of critical health services such as generation and mental health care.

It uses approximately 1 out of 4 people in MEDICAID rural areas, state and federal program for low and disabled people. Therefore, when the Republicans of the Senate discussed discounts in spending on medical aid, legislators added a program worth $ 50 billion to put out the opposition. But health defenders and researchers doubt that it will be sufficient to compensate for the expected cuts in federal financing.

The majority leader of the Senate John Thun, a Republican of South Dakota, who has one of the largest percentage of the country’s countryside, Batch To pass the budget bill. Its location is frequent on its website to support access to sponsorship in rural areas. But his office refused to answer the record to questions about the rural health program included in the draft law.

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, made a preliminary amendment to add the rural program, also did not respond to the request for comment. On July 15, Senator Josh Holie, Republican Missouri, Submit To reflect the discounts in the future to Medicaid and in addition to the rural program.

Michael Canon, director of health policy studies at the Kato Institute, a Libertari research center in Washington, DC, said the money was allocated due to policy and not necessarily for rural patients.

Canon said: “As long as it is a government fund in which the policy determines where the money goes, there will be a mismatch between the place where these funds go and what consumers need.”

The Office of the Non -Partisan Congress Budget is estimated at the medical spending on the medical About 1 trillion dollars During the next decade.

“These sums are translated in dollars into actual people,” said Frederick Blavene, an older colleague and researcher at the Urban Institute, a research center based in Washington, DC, focusing on social and economic research.

Most states have expanded Medicaid programs to cover more low -income adults under reasonable prices. Blavin said this reduced medical debts, improving health, and even low death rates.

Alice Burns, assistant director of the KFF program on the Medicaid and the non -insured, by 2034, said about 11.8 million people is expected to lose their health insurance from this law. She said that the decline in medical aid may have a significant impact on rural areas.

In rural areas, federal medical aid spending is expected to decrease by $ 155 billion over a period of 10 years KFF analysisIt is a non -profit health information that includes KFF Health News.

Burns said that if the goal of the rural program is to convert rural health care, as its name suggests, it will be shortened, “Burns said. She said that the rural program of 50 billion dollars distributed over a period of five years will not compensate for the expected losses over a decade of discounts in medical aid.

In Kansas, Carrie Lutz, CEO of Holton Community Hospital, said she “does not feel that the sky is falling now.”

Lutz, whose hospital consisting of 14 families in the northern plains of the state said she is preparing for a potential loss of patients covered in the Medicine and the supplier tax bombs, which almost all states use to obtain additional federal Medicine funds.

Lutz said that the reduction of supplier taxes has been delayed until the 2028 fiscal year, but it still wants to apply for its mandate leaders to obtain a portion of the funding of the rural program, which is expected to be distributed sooner.

“Every small shark helps when you have very negative margins to start,” said Lotz.

The amount of $ 50 billion will spread over five years It may not be limited To enhance rural areas or their hospitals. Half money will be distributed “equally” between countries that apply to Medicare & Medicaid service centers. Burns said that the current language of the law “provokes a possibility” that a small country like Vermont may receive the same amount as a large country like Texas.

Countries are required to submit a “detailed rural health transfer plan” by the end of this year, according to the law.

The law says that countries should use funds to follow up goals, including improving access to hospitals and other service providers, improving health results, enhancing economic opportunities for health care workers, and giving priority to the use of emerging technologies.

Mehmet Oz, a trump appointed to lead Medicare and Medicaid, will determine how to distribute the other half, or 25 billion dollars, using a formula based on the rural population in the states and need. The law says that money should be used in things such as increasing the use of robots, promoting cybersecurity, and helping rural societies “to correct their health care systems.”

CMS spokesperson did not answer the question list.

Kyle Zipley, the first vice president of public policy at the American Remote Medical Association, said that there is a “great degree of discretionary authority” for the White House, the medical care official and the medical stomach in approval of the state’s plans.

“We will urge countries to include remote healthcare options and strong virtual care as part of their proposals to rise to the federal government,” Zipley said.

McKinley Abel said that although the law calls on states to create and present plans, it is unclear what are the state agencies that will perform this task, that although the law calls on states to create and present plans, it is unclear what are the state agencies that will perform this task.

“There are many gaps about the application and implementation,” she said, noting that Previous version of the bill He called for state plans to be developed in consultation with state offices in the field of rural health funded by the federal government.

But those offices He suggested eliminating it In Trump’s federal budget, which will face the approval of Congress in the fall. McKinley Abel said that its organization supports rural health offices that help in developing plans and working with countries to dispose of money, “because they closely know the rural health community.”

Hohman, with the Rural Health Clinic Association, said it is not sure of the funds of the transformation program until it reaches its members. She said about 27 % of patients treated in rural health clinics are registered in medical aid.

“There is some confusion about who already gets this money at the end of the day,” Hohman said. “What will be used already?”

KFF Health News Phil Galewitz contributed to this report.