As the midterms approach, ads supporting Democrats and Republicans are making competing claims about how President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy law will impact rural healthcare.
Ads backing Republican candidates have highlighted their support for a $50 billion rural healthcare fund in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — while ignoring its much larger cuts to Medicaid, which are expected to reduce funding for rural healthcare overall. Other ads similarly leave out the Medicaid cuts in misleadingly claiming that Democrats voted against funding for rural hospitals.
Democratic groups, meanwhile, have hammered Republicans over the possibility that those cuts could force some rural hospitals to close, often citing specific numbers of facilities that the law endangers. While the law is likely to have a significant financial impact on rural hospitals, experts told us it’s impossible to predict how many might close as a result.
Access to healthcare is a major issue in many rural areas, where people tend to have worse health outcomes and experience various barriers getting care, including shortages of healthcare professionals, long travel times, financially strained hospitals and gaps in essential services like maternity care.

