By AMANDA SEITZ
Rural hospitals are making ready to lose billions of {dollars} from President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending minimize invoice signed into legislation this summer season.
Dozens, already on the brink, have warned they face the prospect of closure or lowered companies due to the invoice’s cuts to Medicaid, which is funded by federal and state governments and supplies well being care protection for the poorest People.
At a cupboard assembly on Tuesday celebrating working People, Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted {that a} historic “ infusion of money ” is on the best way for rural hospitals all through the nation.
“Proper now we spend 7% of Medicaid {dollars} on rural hospitals,” he stated. “They’re getting the brief finish of the stick.” To deal with that, he stated a brand new fund — established within the laws — will give rural hospitals an additional $10 billion yearly.
Right here’s a have a look at the info.
THE CLAIM: Kennedy, talking concerning the “One Huge Stunning Invoice Act”: “Below the agricultural transformation program, we give them an additional $10 billion a 12 months. We’re elevating an infusion of money, rural hospitals and rural communities, by 50%. It’s going to be the largest infusion in historical past and it’s going to revive and revitalize these communities.”
THE FACTS: There’s extra to that almost 900-page invoice than Kennedy let on on the White Home.
It’s true that Republicans established a brand new fund that may put aside $10 billion yearly for rural hospitals, suppliers and clinics. However they did that to offset important cuts that rural hospitals are anticipated to endure because of the laws, which additionally slashes $1.2 trillion from the federal funds over the following decade, primarily from Medicaid.
Roughly 10 million persons are anticipated to lose medical insurance from the laws. Most individuals will lose Medicaid.
That may go away many hospitals with sufferers who can’t afford to pay for emergency companies. The modifications are anticipated to hit rural areas, the place as many as 1 in 4 People depend on Medicaid to pay for medical insurance, notably exhausting.
Estimates have steered that rural hospitals, specifically, may lose between $58 billion and $137 billion over the following decade due to the invoice’s provisions. As many as 300 rural hospitals had been in danger for closure due to the GOP’s invoice, in response to an evaluation by The Cecil G. Sheps Middle for Well being Providers Analysis on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Rural Well being Transformation Program established within the legislation is meant to forestall these closures. It units apart $10 billion yearly from 2026 to 2030.
Hospitals and well being trade consultants have warned that whereas the fund throws a lifeline to rural hospitals, it received’t save all of them.
“This definitely wouldn’t offset that totally,” Washington College well being coverage analyst Timothy McBride stated of the fund.
Then there’s the matter of how hospitals will really entry the funds. Half of the $50 billion will likely be divided equally amongst all states. The opposite half will likely be divided based mostly on a formulation, developed by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers, that examines a state’s rural inhabitants and the variety of low-income folks it serves.
Dividing a few of the funds equally amongst states, nonetheless, will finally give some states, even people who have few rural hospitals, the identical amount of cash as these states which have a major variety of rural hospitals.
“All of them have wants, however at the very least half of the funds are going to be distributed equally, which doesn’t make sense,” McBride stated. “Some states don’t have very many, and others have loads.”
A spokesperson for Kennedy didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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