Senator Marshall: Trump Admin Has Done More for Rural Healthcare & Rural Economy Than Any Admin

Senator Marshall Questions HHS Secretary Kennedy at Senate Finance & HELP Committee Hearings

Washington - On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and Finance Committee Hearings focused on the Department's fiscal year 2027 budget.

Senator Marshall's questioning focused on the damaging impact of the Affordable Care Act on rural providers and advancing the MAHA movement's mission to restore common sense and prevention to our health care system. He also praised President Trump's commitment to rural America through the Rural Health Transformation Fund, which increases federal support for rural hospitals by 50 percent over five years.

Click HERE for Senator Marshall's full remarks at the Senate HELP hearing and HERE for Senator Marshall's full remarks at the Senate Finance hearing.

Highlights from the hearing include:

On Medicaid Spending:

Senator Marshall: "I'm so glad, though, today that my colleagues across the aisle recognize the failure of Obamacare - pointed out on both sides here that hundreds of hospitals are closing, but there are no policies that this Congress has passed that are implemented yet. Our Medicaid policies, which will increase spending by 50% over the next five years or so, have not even taken effect until 2027 for the most part. So, I think it's an admission that the ACA didn't work, that Medicaid expansion didn't work. Why do we have failing hospitals now? Well, number one is overregulation, especially in smaller hospitals. The ACA led to so much overregulation, which leads to consolidation of industry. The next issue is the depopulation of rural America. We built hospitals with 50-100 beds, and now the average census in these rural critical access hospitals is 1.6 patients per night. So, it's just really hard to make a business plan that works like that. But I want to point out and say thanks to President Trump -that because of the Medicaid provider tax, Kansas is going to get an extra billion dollars this year, an extra billion - with a B - dollars. The Rural Health Transformation fund - $222 million. Doc pay is increased by 2.5% as well. So, I think that you have done some great, great things. I mean, I would assume that you've done as much financially for rural hospitals as any president in American history or that any HHS has done."

Secretary Kennedy: "I would agree with that. I think the Rural Health Transformation fund is an infusion of money that increases the annual federal dollars to rural hospitals by 50% for the next five years."

On rural transformation funding by the Trump Administration:

Senator Marshall: "Mr. Chairman, I just want to remind everybody that Medicaid spending is going to be going up hundreds of billions of dollars over the next several years. I think the Trump administration has done more for rural health care and the rural economy than any administration. Mr. Secretary, maybe you can just talk a little bit about the money. I mean real money, a billion dollars in the Medicaid range, an extra billion dollars we've given to Kansas, and another $220 million to the Rural Health Transformation fund. What has the Trump administration done to help fund rural health care?"

Secretary Kennedy: "Well, first, you know, one of the Democratic talking points is that we've cut Medicaid by a trillion dollars. But CBO disagrees with that. The CBO report from two weeks ago is that Medicaid will raise from about 600 billion to 900 billion by 2036. A 47% increase - only in Washington is that considered a cut. Second, the President is making the biggest investment in rural health of any administration in history. The Rural Health Transformation fund gives $50 billion, and just to put that in context, over five years, Medicaid, which we've just heard, is closing hospitals. Medicaid only gives 7% of its funding to rural hospitals, about $20 billion a year. We are now increasing that influx of federal funds by 50% per year, 10 billion extra dollars a year. This gives those hospitals a chance to restructure, to rebuild their infrastructure, to install telehealth, to remodel themselves. As you've pointed out, the business model is failed for a lot of those hospitals - 1.6 patients a day. You cannot have an overnight hospital and have a business model that works. You need to have another model, and we need to help them transition to that. And that's one of the things that the Rural Health Transformation fund will do."

On the overall MAHA movement:

Senator Marshall: "Secretary Kennedy, let's talk about something near and dear to our hearts. You were committed to Make America Healthy Again, and very specifically targeting children and their health. Just tell me some of the things that you've done and where are we going, briefly - what's the goals for the next year to help make America healthy again?"

Secretary Kennedy: "Thank you for that question, Senator. I think probably the most impactful thing that we've done is change the food pyramid. The food pyramid was written by food industry lobbyists for 50 years, and it reflected the mercantile impulses of those companies that put Fruit Loops at the top of the food pyramid. We have now done a science-based guideline. The best nutritionists in our country from the biggest universities came together for almost a year in a science-based guidance, and emphasized protein, vegetables, and whole grains, that will now revolutionize the dietary culture in this country because we're changing the subsidy program. So we give $405 million just from USDA - a day - in food subsidies to the Wix program, to school lunches, to the Indian Health Services, to SNAP, and all these other programs, and they will now change to align with the dietary guidelines. The military is now changing the food on all its bases, and so we're going to see massive changes across the culture, and we're going to see more availability of this food. I can explain why that'll happen, but I think that's the most important thing, getting rid of the GRAS standards, which we've had bipartisan support on there. Senator Sanders has been a leader on that issue. We are actually doing it now. We have final regulations again in the inter-agency process on grass right now, we're getting rid of food ties. We're reforming through operation, stork speed, infant formula, redoing the nutrients, making sure to test for all the contaminants."

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