States jostle over $50B rural health fund as Trump’s Medicaid cuts trigger scramble

KFF Health News – Friday, October 17, 2025
By Sarah Jane Tribble

WASHINGTON — Nationwide, states are racing to win their share of a new $50 billion rural health fund. But helping rural hospitals, as originally envisioned, is quickly becoming a quaint idea.

Rather, states should submit applications that “rebuild and reshape” how health care is delivered in rural communities, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official Abe Sutton said late last month during a daylong meeting at Washington, D.C.’s Watergate Hotel.

Click here to read the entire article.