Posted on 01/03/2026 8:00:34 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
The Trump administration on Monday doled out billions to states from a fund Congress created to “transform” rural health care. The funds, however, will be lavished more generously on small states and states that adopt administration friendly policies.
“The purpose of this $50 billion investment in rural health care is not to pay off the bills,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters Monday. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment is to allow us to rightsize the system and to deal with the fundamental hindrances of improvement in rural health care.”
Over the next five years, half of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund will be distributed evenly among states, meaning Texas and California will receive far less per-person than states with tiny populations.
Leaders of those smaller states, on both sides of the aisle, are defending that setup. Divvying up the money according to state population size, they argue, would have screwed them over. The U.S. health system generally pays according to the number of patients a doctor or hospital sees or the number of services they provide, but tiny rural clinics and hospitals don’t get the volume of patients needed to keep the lights on under such a formula.
“As a relatively small state, this will help us a lot to keep our hospitals open, to make sure there are providers available to have telehealth available,” Hawaii Democratic Gov. Josh Green told POLITICO.
Green, who worked for decades as a physician before entering politics, said the favorable structure for smaller states was no accident.
“I was already working with Dr. Oz…That meeting, which was with me, Governor Braun and Governor Huckabee…was a heart to heart about what will happen if Medicaid cuts occur — to rural hospitals.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Scamali Health Care companies are standing by across the land to receive their payments.
“administration friendly policies” = won’t be stolen by local politicians.
To help rural health, the money would be better spent on increasing reimbursement to rural providers to keep their doors open. The only winners in this give away will be consultants and vendors peddling solutions .
Rural health has been an issue for decades.
The cluster foxtrot that government has created will take time to unwind.
Until that framework is in place, people still need healthcare.
I wish the use of the terms “health spending”, “health care”, and “health insurance” could be abolished.
“The only winners in this give away will be consultants and vendors peddling solutions”
A+. 100%
Doles out? There’s surely no bias there!
Our debt is ignored as always.
“Doles out” seems to indicate small amounts grudgingly distributed. Leave it to Politico to spin it that way!
1996: Dole’s out Clinton’s in.
This is a good example of how Federal tax funds should be used! This brings in top medical professionals to the communities that support the ag industry. It fosters economic growth and builds up the heartland. In turn, it brings in wealth and families who are anxious to escape the cities and suburbia.
I just hope the money is closely guarded and goes to the right organization or people.....corruption is rampant as we all know
Oh gee, another government program. This time it’ll work.
They would rather billions be doled out to the little brown border jumpers and the homely bug-eyed scamalis.
“to rightsize the system” Oz is correct in this goal. We need discussion, ideas, on how to do this.
Example 1: Over the years both government and tax deductible private money has disproportionately gone to big medical centers in urban centers.
Over the years, Medical centers have gone from non-profit to for-profit..often by a hybrid option where non-profit exists in name only. These big hospital corporations have bought up the rural hospitals. They have bought up the clinics and private practices. Why? because both tax policy and good intentions have driven them that way.
The result is that rural doctors, rural hospitals are nothing more than feeders whose mission is to send patients to the high priced metro-hospital. A patient has cancer? a heart condition? send it to the hospital that is allowed by HHS to charge the highest rate to treat that disease.
Do a FOIA request on any State Medicaid system. Follow the money. Rural money always ends up in Metro hospitals. Metro money never ends up in Rural hospitals.
Example 2: The word “Healthcare” is an oxymoron in the US. In the US we spend big money on “SICK CARE”. We spend little money on good healthy diet, good healthy exercise, good healthy lifestyle. Essentially all the debate that RFK and other Trump appointees have brought to HHS is a debate about good lifestyle with less SICK CARE vs bad lifestyle and MORE SICK CARE.
Example 3: HHS spends the most money. It has the most WFA Waste Fraud Abuse and needs DOGE the most. The Somali WFA is a hot topic now. But the SWAMP in DC (and MD and GA) has a lot more WFA than the Somali. Poverty Pimp Deloitte is one example of big Waste Fraud Abuse of taxpayer money.
Where is there political appetite to “RIGHTSIZE” HEALTH in the US?
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