Donald Trump: One Big Beautiful Law is a historic investment in rural health care

WASHINGTON - Today's White House memorandum, "One Big Beautiful Act is a Historic Investment in Rural Health Care," details how this groundbreaking law by the President represents a historic investment in vulnerable communities to ensure the sustainability of health care options for Americans who rely on these care options.

TRANSFORMING RURAL CARE WITH HISTORIC INVESTMENT AND RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
The Rural Health Transformation Program will provide states with unprecedented new funding for a range of purposes designed to make rural health care more efficient and sustainable over the long term. In partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), states must submit detailed Rural Health Transformation Plans that include information on how these resources will be used to improve access to health care providers in their communities and ultimately improve health outcomes. CMS will monitor implementation and hold states accountable for adherence to this plan to ensure that resources are properly distributed and that they reach those who are most deserving, not those who are most politically connected.

ENSURING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RURAL CARE BY ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC ISSUES
Unlike smaller programs that have traditionally been the main mechanisms for supporting rural care, the Rural Health Transformation Program is uniquely designed to promote innovation and long-term sustainability of rural health care.

Rural hospitals suffer from chronic problems with extremely low patient volume. They have both fewer beds than urban hospitals and occupancy rates that are much lower (37 %) than their urban counterparts (62 %). Therefore, when programs link funding to reimbursement for services provided-as these older programs do-these programs do not support long-term sustainability because the overall volume of services provided in these facilities remains low. In other words, these programs do not actually provide hospitals with the investment that would help them sustain themselves.

Unlike these other programmes, the Rural Health Transformation Programme is designed to encourage innovation in payments and flexibility. This funding can be used to help these facilities make the investments necessary to better meet the needs of the communities they serve and become more sustainable over the long term.

THE HEALTH INDUSTRY PROMOTES FLAWED ANALYSES TO OBSCURE THE REAL POSITIVE IMPACTS OF ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL LAW
Rural hospitals receive only 7 % of Medicaid hospital expenditures. Yet, industry leaders and lobbyists continue to lament and fear-monger that the law threatens rural facilities, when in fact OBBB is providing historic investments in the Rural Health Transformation Program to ensure underserved rural hospitals are strengthened, a monumental victory that should be celebrated after years of neglect and lack of financial support.

The disparity between urban and rural hospitals makes clear how the waste, fraud and abuse that have proliferated under the Biden administration have not benefited the most vulnerable hospitals. OBBB is aggressively fighting this waste, fraud, and abuse by enforcing eligibility requirements, prioritizing work over welfare, and putting Americans first by removing aliens and ending the financial gimmicks used to subsidize coverage for illegal immigrants. These important efforts to combat waste, fraud, and abuse have allowed Congress and the Trump Administration to make this historic investment in streamlining our health care system by ensuring that new health care funding reaches facilities in vulnerable communities, helping to make them sustainable.

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