Rural Health News is a weekly segment of Rural Health Today, a podcast by Hillsdale Hospital.
Welcome back to Rural Health News, the segment of Rural Health Today where we fill you in on the latest in rural health headlines. We’ll cover three headlines in today’s episode: what’s most urgent, a rural health damage report, and a success story to send us into the week.
Most Urgent
Last week, lawmakers introduced a bill to reverse Medicaid and ACA cuts and expand Medicare to provide dental, vision and hearing coverage for seniors. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna have been on the front lines of the legislation, and they’re calling it the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act” in an attempt to repeal some of the deepest Medicaid cuts enforced under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The legislation would also restore the expired ACA subsidies by removing the 400% federal poverty level income cap.
This would all be funded by a 5% annual wealth tax on those with a net worth over $1 billion. Whether or not this funding method would be sustainable or even considered by Congress, this bill is an important move in the direction of refunding Medicaid for our most vulnerable patients and hospitals across the country.
Damage Report
We’ve reported before that Michigan’s proposal for spending Rural Health Transformation Program funding was disappointing and did not adequately represent our state’s rural health needs. Now, many more states are saying the same. As CMS announces approved funding applications from state departments of health and human services, healthcare leaders are voicing their growing concern over the results. Many express frustrations over the quick turnaround time states had to submit applications and others cite the structure of the program itself for the inadequacy of the funding allocation. We encourage rural hospitals to continue interacting with their lawmakers and state health departments to push back on insufficient funding and poorly allocated resources so we can make rural health sustainable again.
In other news, hospitals and health systems have been taking a hard look at the financial impact of ACA coverage losses. As patients continue to drop their insurance plans due to expired enhanced premium tax credits, a real picture of financial loss is forming. Large for-profit health systems expect to see 15-30% fewer patients who were previously covered by an ACA plan. One health system, Tenet Healthcare, fears for its facilities in Arizona, California and Michigan the most, anticipating a 20% drop in exchange enrollment. Nonprofit hospitals have been hesitant to project exact financials, but also expect a sharp decrease in patient volumes, resulting in meaningful losses to their bottom line.
Success Story
Juniata College is forming a rural health collaborative with other local organizations to contend with declining healthcare access in their rural county. The purpose of rural health collaboratives is to maintain rural healthcare access by consolidating resources, reducing costs and standardizing practices for local hospitals and clinics. By forming a collaborative, Juniata College aims to address the healthcare workforce shortage in their county by bringing in more training opportunities for students and community members. We can keep healthcare access local when we strengthen the organizational partnerships within rural communities.
Sources
Rural Health News is a weekly segment of Rural Health Today, a podcast by Hillsdale Hospital.
News sources for this episode:
Jakob Emerson, “Lawmakers introduce bill to reverse Medicaid cuts, expand Medicare benefits,” March 2, 2026, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-reverse-medicaid-cuts-expand-medicare-benefits/, Becker’s Healthcare.
Arielle Zionts and Sarah Jane Tribble, “States face pushback on their rural health transformation plans,” March 3, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/states-rural-health-transformation-plans/, CBS News.
Caroline Hudson, “Hospitals do the math on upcoming ACA coverage losses,” March 3, 2026, https://www.modernhealthcare.com/providers/mh-uhs-hca-tenet-aca-exchange-enrollment/, Modern Healthcare.
Sydney Roach, “Juniata College is planning a rural health collaborative in Huntingdon County with federal funding,” March 3, 2026, https://radio.wpsu.org/2026-03-03/juniata-college-rural-health-collaborative-huntingdon-county-federal-funding, WPSU.
Rural Health Today is a production of Hillsdale Hospital in Hillsdale, Michigan and a member of the Health Podcast Network. Our host is JJ Hodshire, our producer is Kyrsten Newlon, and our audio engineer is Kenji Ulmer. Special thanks to our special guests for sharing their expertise on the show, and also to the Hillsdale Hospital marketing team. If you want to submit a question for us to answer on the podcast or learn more about Rural Health Today, visit ruralhealthtoday.com.
