Washington — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said Sunday that applications for a fund for rural hospitals will go out in “early September” in the wake of Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s signature piece of legislation passed by Congress last month.
“We’re putting $50 billion. The president wants this, the Congress wants this,” Oz said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Mr. Trump signed the so-called “big, beautiful bill” into law last month, which included a number of his second-term priorities from tax cuts to increased spending on border security, defense and energy production. The legislation was paid for in part by significant cuts to health care programs, like Medicaid, which provides government-sponsored health care for low-income and disabled Americans.
Among the cuts to Medicaid, the new law will lower provider taxes, which states use to help fund their portion of Medicaid costs. Lawmakers sought to supplement the cuts with a rural hospital stabilization fund after some GOP senators expressed concern over how rural hospitals could be impacted by the Medicaid restrictions, allocating $50 billion for rural hospitals.
Oz outlined that rural hospitals will receive applications for the fund in early September. He said the money is designed to help with “workforce development, right-sizing the system and using technology to provide things like telehealth that can change the world.”
“Imagine if we can change the way we think about the delivery of health and make it more about getting people healthy who can thrive and flourish and be fully present in their own lives and as Americans,” Oz said.
The new law will also make changes to Medicaid work requirements for some able-bodied adults, along with more frequent eligibility checks. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation would result in 11.8 million Americans losing health coverage under Medicaid over the next decade.
Oz touted the work requirements, saying “every Democratic president and Republican president has said that the foundation of a healthy welfare system, a social system of support, is work.”
He outlined that the requirements can also be met through community engagement, education and in caretaking roles, and that the administration began pursuing pilot programs when the bill was signed to demonstrate how technology can support the changes. But Brennan noted that according to KFF Health Policy, 92% of adult Medicaid recipients already are working or are caregivers or qualify for other exceptions. Oz said “they’re fine.”
“We want to help connect you to the job market and get you into work,” Oz said of people who are considered able-bodied. “The goal of health care insurance is to catalyze action in the right direction, to get you healthier, to give you agency over the future, so you recognize you matter, and you should have a job, therefore, to go out and change the world.”