President Donald Trump, pushing back Thursday at claims that cuts to Medicaid included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will harm the nation's rural hospitals, pointed out that a provision in the legislation was included to strengthen them instead.
"Americans know we need a better Healthcare System to properly serve our Great Communities that were abandoned by the Radical Left Democrats," Trump said on his Truth Social page. "That is why Republicans included $50 Billion Dollars in the 'ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL' — to strengthen our most vulnerable Hospitals, including those in Rural areas."
However, he stressed that all Democrats in Congress voted against the funding.
"I want to thank all of the Republicans in Congress who worked incredibly hard to make this achievement possible," he wrote. "OUR NATION THANKS YOU, TOO!"
The bill sets $50 billion in funding for the Rural Health Transformation Program. The legislation states that the funding must be used to address several issues and strategies in the nation's rural healthcare systems, including improving access to services, boosting local and regional partnerships between hospitals and care providers, recruiting and training more staff, and using technology to bring high-quality healthcare to rural areas.
However, one Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., this week introduced legislation to stop future cuts to Medicaid hospital funding after voting for the legislation that included almost $1 trillion in program reductions.
His bill would repeal provisions limiting the ability of states to levy taxes on health providers to receive more Medicaid funding from the federal government and repeal caps on state-directed payments.
He is also calling for another $50 billion for the Rural Health Transformation Program and to extend the program from five years to 10.
Several experts, meanwhile, have said that even with $100 billion, that is not enough money to make up for the cuts in Medicaid that were approved in the megabill, which Trump signed into law on July 4.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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