Simply put, the rescue fund is a waste of taxpayer dollars that will funnel cash to hospitals that are neither rural nor in peril. The fund comes with a few strings attached, which means it will be easy for wealthy providers to gobble up the money.
Rural hospitals are supposedly in dire financial straits. And the forthcoming Medicaid “cuts” authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could put hundreds more facilities deep in the red.
At least, that’s the prevailing narrative inside the beltway — and the justification for the $50 billion rural hospital “rescue” fund that Congress included in the bill. But that narrative bears little resemblance to reality. For starters, Medicaid isn’t being cut at all. Total Medicaid spending is still projected to grow by $450 billion over the next nine years, according to Paragon Health Institute. It’ll just grow more slowly than it would have without the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And rural hospitals account for just 1.3% of Medicaid spending, so it’s unlikely that genuinely rural facilities would lose anywhere close to $50 billion in revenue because of the law.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
The rural hospital rescue fund is a fraud
Sally C. Pipes
Simply put, the rescue fund is a waste of taxpayer dollars that will funnel cash to hospitals that are neither rural nor in peril. The fund comes with a few strings attached, which means it will be easy for wealthy providers to gobble up the money.
Rural hospitals are supposedly in dire financial straits. And the forthcoming Medicaid “cuts” authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could put hundreds more facilities deep in the red.
At least, that’s the prevailing narrative inside the beltway — and the justification for the $50 billion rural hospital “rescue” fund that Congress included in the bill. But that narrative bears little resemblance to reality. For starters, Medicaid isn’t being cut at all. Total Medicaid spending is still projected to grow by $450 billion over the next nine years, according to Paragon Health Institute. It’ll just grow more slowly than it would have without the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And rural hospitals account for just 1.3% of Medicaid spending, so it’s unlikely that genuinely rural facilities would lose anywhere close to $50 billion in revenue because of the law.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.