Here's what to know about the $50 billion states are getting for rural health

"A nationwide experiment to give health care in rural America a $50 billion makeover is underway. The Trump administration, in a late December announcement, revealed how much each state will get under an ambitious 5-year initiative known as the Rural Health Transformation Program. "This is a massive effort to change an unfortunate reality that has occurred to rural health care in America," Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters as the awards went out, "which is that your zip code has started to predict your life expectancy." Research shows people are more likely to die younger in rural communities compared to cities, and the disparity has grown over the last three decades."

"Congress created this new pot of money last summer. States were given just 52 days to pull together applications and outline how they would use the funding to improve outcomes, grow the rural health care workforce and drive innovation. Each state is guaranteed $100 million a year over the next five years. The rest of the money was awarded based on a series of factors including how rural a state is, what states propose to do with the money and whether the states adopt policies aligned with the administration's Make America Healthy Again priorities."

"There's bipartisan excitement about rural health finally getting some attention and investment. Democrats and many health policy experts argue, however, that this temporary $50 billion infusion pales in comparison to the roughly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare, also passed by Congress last year. "There's a lot of great things in these proposals," said Kevin Bennett, director of the Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare at the University of South Carolina. "But I think if we really wanted to transform [rural health care], they would have gone a lot further." Bennett spoke on a panel about the new funding co-hosted by the healthy policy new organization T"

A nationwide, five-year Rural Health Transformation Program will allocate $50 billion to rural health, with every state guaranteed $100 million annually. Allocation beyond the guarantees is based on rural population, state proposals, and adoption of the administration's Make America Healthy Again priorities. Research indicates rural residents have shorter life expectancy than urban residents, a disparity that has widened over three decades. States had 52 days to submit plans to use funds to improve outcomes, expand the rural health workforce, and drive innovation. The initiative drew bipartisan enthusiasm but critics say the funding is small compared with roughly $1 trillion in recent Medicaid and Obamacare cuts.

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