One Country Debunks Rural Health Fund Myths
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unveiled the Rural Health Transformation Program, created under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. The established Rural Health Fund is said to strengthen rural health care infrastructure and build sustainable health care systems. The One Country Project has debunked these myths, proving that the president's megabill will continue to hurt rural Americans.
Estimates indicate that the nearly trillion dollars in “savings” from our health providers through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) taken together will result in $155 billion less in Medicaid funds coming to rural areas. To mitigate this devastating blow to an already-fragile delivery system, the bill established the Rural Health Fund. The Fund will make grants of $10 billion per year available beginning in Fiscal Year 2026 – totaling $50 billion.
The fund will distribute $10 billion a year for five years, with half divided equally among states that apply. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has the authority to distribute the rest. The law doesn't require the money to only go to rural hospitals, though and several of the nation's largest medical groups say it will not be enough to compensate for the Medicaid cuts, the rising number of uninsured and new limits on payments.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled guidance for the Rural Transformation Program today, providing details how providers and states can access the $50 billion allegedly aimed to make rural providers whole in the face of Medicaid cuts in the OBBBA.
This is a temporary program but Medicaid cuts to our rural communities continue beyond the life of the Fund. Due to the OBBA, providers now face difficult decisions about remaining open, states plan their budgets to absorb losses in funding, patients lose coverage and access to care, and community health and well-being suffers. This Fund will not even come close to making whole our rural providers.
We've discussed the problems with this math not adding up at the One Country Project, and will continue to do so. It's still unclear how providers will truly access these funds given the discretion largely lies with states and the Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS).
Posted on September 16, 2025
in
Research.
