Congress set aside $50 billion to transform rural health care. Will it work?

A $50 billion pot of money for rural health care made it into last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump’s hallmark tax and spending law. But the funding comes in tandem with massive cuts to Medicaid spending — an existential risk to many rural hospitals. On today’s show, Kimberly speaks with KFF Health News correspondent Arielle Zionts about the potential benefits of the Rural Health Transformation Program and its potential shortfalls. Plus, Congress never came to an agreement on the Obamacare subsidies at the heart of last year’s government shutdown. What does that mean for rural communities?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "States Race To Launch Rural Health Transformation Plans" from KFF Health News

• "$50 billion rural health ‘slush fund’ raises questions, skepticism" from Marketplace 

• "Rural patients face tough choices when their hospitals stop delivering babies" from the South Dakota Searchlight

• "Hundreds of America's rural hospitals have vanished. Maps show closures by state." from Business Insider 

• "Alabama’s ‘Pretty Cool’ Plan for Robots in Maternity Care Sparks Debate" from KFF Health News

• "Why Congress failed to reach an Obamacare deal" from Politico 

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