RFK Jr. promised to “expand rural health care like never before,” while helping Trump implement the largest cuts to rural health care in history to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Republicans’ Big, Ugly bill cut over $130 billion from rural health care, an amount their rural pity fund barely even begins to compensate for. Now, the damage is playing out across the country: 15 million Americans are at risk of losing coverage, over 800 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other critical providers are closing, cutting essential services, or are at risk of closing, and people are losing their jobs. Costs have exploded and families are being pushed to the brink. Rural communities are being hit the hardest. Here is the reality for millions of rural Americans:
RHETORIC
REALITY
“President Donald Trump’s administration will deliver unprecedented investments to rebuild rural health care infrastructure and address the root causes of the health care crisis facing rural America.” – RFK Jr. on 9/16/25
The Trump administration passed the most unprecedented cuts to rural health care in history: gutting over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA, putting over 330 rural hospitals at risk of closure and service cuts, shuttering rural clinics across the country, and hiking premiums for millions of rural Americans. GOP cuts are crumbling an already strained infrastructure, expanding maternity care deserts, and leaving Americans from Iowa to Georgia more than 45 minutes away from the care they need.
“Throwing money at struggling hospital operations is like a Band-Aid on a severed artery, leaving a broken system in place.” – RFK Jr. on 9/16/25
The true “bandaid on a severed artery” is Trump’s abysmal rural health fund. The meager fund failed to scratch the surface of the hundreds of billions in cuts to hospitals before RFK Jr. dictated that no more than 15 percent of the funds can be used to help rural health providers stay afloat. Entire communities are finding themselves without nearby care. Patients are driving hours for basic doctor visits and prescriptions. Local economies are suffering as health care jobs vanish. Meanwhile, RFK is touting “AI nurses” as the solution.
“Together, we will expand rural health care like never before—that is my promise to Texas, to rural communities, and to the American people.” – RFK Jr. on 8/29/25
ACA Medicaid expansion was the largest expansion of health care for rural Americans in history and the Trump administration is gutting it. Republicans are gutting the health care 1 in 4 rural Americans rely on, while raising premiums for millions more – all to give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations. More than three million rural Americans rely on the Affordable Care Act. GOP premium hikes doubled their premiums and hit them 28 percent harder than urban residents. RFK and Trump betrayed rural America.