Recent reporting from Axios revealed that after voting to slash $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) nationwide, Republicans including Senator Jon Husted (OH), and Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Derrick Van Orden (WI-03), and Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06), are trying to save face by touting “rural health investments” that do nothing to change the reality for rural families. They are the ones who created a rural health crisis in the first place, gutting rural health care to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. It’s laughable that they are bragging about rural health care grants that don’t even scratch the surface and are barely a drop in the bucket compared with what they ripped out of the health care system.
| State | Grant Received This Year | Estimated Total GOP Medicaid Cut |
| Arizona | $166.9 million | $34.5 billion |
| Iowa | $209 million | $9.5 billion |
| Ohio | $202 million | $32.6 billion |
| Wisconsin | $203.6 million | $6.7 billion |
Rural health care leaders themselves have warned that these funds won’t come close to undoing the damage of Trump and Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid. Jed Hansen, the executive director of the Nebraska Rural Health Association, said, “[The] Rural Health Transformation will not save a single hospital in our state. I don’t think it will save a single hospital nationally.”
Nationwide, more than 1,200 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes have already been forced to shut down, cut services, or are at risk of doing so after the GOP’s cuts. Read more on how Republican lawmakers gutted health care here.