Jason Smith: I'll keep fighting for rural health care

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

Every family in America struggles with the cost of health care, which has been growing at an unsustainable rate. But in Missouri, families know that the bigger issue is access to care. My mom worked at Briggs & Stratton just so my family could have health insurance, so I understand what a challenge access to care is. We’ve seen 12 hospitals in rural Missouri communities closed in recent years. Every hospital closure makes it so that health care is further away from many rural Missourians than ever before. When someone is having a heart attack, a stroke, or a baby is coming early, that extra hour can be the difference between life and death.

That’s why I made fighting for rural health care a priority when I wrote the Working Families Tax Cuts, also known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The RHTP is a $50 billion investment in rural health care nationwide — the largest single investment in rural health care in American history — and Missouri was awarded more than $216 million of it. 

After passage of the fund, I haven’t let my foot of the gas. I have pressed Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Oz since the bill passed, as well as Governor Kehoe, to make sure that money reaches the communities it was written for — particularly those in southeast and south central Missouri. Now, Missourians are on the cusp of seeing new resources coming into our rural health facilities.

Just this week, the Trump Administration announced more than $2.3 million of RHTP funding will go toward supporting health care workers and expanding access to maternal care in rural communities across the Show-Me State. This announcement builds on last month’s good news, when the Administration announced more than $45 million for rural Missouri hospitals. About $35 million is slated for 20 hospital projects, including building upgrades, new diagnostic equipment, and renovated critical care space. Another $6.4 million will connect rural providers with behavioral and maternal health specialists, and $4.2 million will train more EMTs and paramedics.

Thanks to the program I fought for, it was recently announced that Salem Memorial Hospital will receive about $1.7 million for a new roof, new windows, and air conditioning in patient rooms so it can stay open and operating for the families who depend on it. On top of that, Texas County Memorial Hospital in Houston will receive roughly $580,000 for heating and cooling upgrades and a new water filtration system for its surgical suite.

The $2.3 million announced this week will help with staffing, a problem every rural hospital faces, by making it easier to keep the health care workers we already have and train new ones right here at home. More than $1.4 million will expand a childcare program where the state, rural employers, and families split the cost, so nurses know their kids are cared for while they care for patients. Another $879,000 will establish Missouri’s first-ever certified nurse midwife training program. A rural mom shouldn’t have to drive an hour or more to find someone to deliver her baby, and training midwives here is how we shorten that drive.

I will keep fighting for rural health care until every dollar announced reaches the hospital it was meant for. Our rural communities have waited a long time for their share of affordable, accessible health care, and I’ll continue working to ensure they get it.