Tracking State Rural Health Transformation Plans
KFF Health News is working to collect and post approved plans as more states respond to emails and public records requests for their documents.
Rural Health
KFF Health News covers the health issues facing people who live in America’s rural reaches.
1-20 of 826 results
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Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Divides Rural Voters, KFF-AP Poll Finds
Many rural voters say immigrants are a key part of their local economy, but views on whether President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has had positive or negative effects on their communities are split.
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Journalists Evaluate Rural Voter Sentiment, MAHA Movement, and Gene-Editing Finding
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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Midterms Have Revived Universal Healthcare Debate. These States Are Ahead of Everyone.
While Democratic congressional candidates are floating the restoration of federal Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid funding, Oregon officials are crafting a more ambitious plan to implement universal coverage in their state.
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Hidden Help
Hospitals Have a Little-Known Tool To Prevent Medical Debt. Here’s How It Works.
Getting financial assistance from hospitals often involves filling out cumbersome forms. Some states now require hospitals to identify and automatically enroll patients eligible for charity care.
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Rural MAHA Followers Say Trump Health Policies Haven’t Reached Their Communities
President Donald Trump has championed sprawling health policy changes under the Make America Healthy Again movement, but a KFF-Associated Press survey of rural voters found people aren’t seeing the initiatives reach their communities.
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These 100 Nursing Homes Face Perilous Flood Risk. Minnesota Shows What Can Happen.
Staff raced against rising floodwater to evacuate 36 residents from a nursing home in New Richland, Minnesota. It’s one of 100 facilities KFF Health News identified as facing some of the nation’s worst flood risk.
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Confusion and Angst Follow State’s Early Rollout of Medicaid Work Rules
In most states, people with Medicaid coverage will have to prove they’re working, volunteering, or studying starting Jan. 1. But Montana put the rules into effect early, and they’re sowing uncertainty and anxiety.
Healthcare a Vague but Potent Issue for Election 2026
Episode 464Healthcare in general, and health costs in particular, are a top issue for voters in 2026. But it remains unclear exactly how voters want lawmakers to fix the problem. Meanwhile, the Trump administration doubled down on its fraud-fighting efforts. Tami Luhby of CNN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
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Black Lung Disease Remains a Threat, but Federal Officials Delay Effort To Address It
The disease has long been a risk of coal mining, an industry the Trump administration is trying to reinvigorate.
By Taylor Sisk -
Economic Frustration Tests Trump’s Standing With Rural Voters, New KFF-AP Poll Finds
Rural voters rank the cost of living and cost of healthcare as top issues they want to hear about from midterm candidates as they face a tightening pocketbook pinch.
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Nursing Home Beds Are Becoming More Scarce
As the oldest baby boomers turn 80, researchers worry there won’t be enough room in nursing facilities for a rapidly graying nation.
By Paula Span -
California Eyes Prison Heat Protections That Fall Short of Workplace Standards
California is crafting weaker heat protections for prisons than other workplaces, citing billions in costs to cool aging institutions as climate and health risks increase. It’s a second-class standard, health and safety advocates say, and would leave correctional workers more susceptible to heat illness.
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States Bet Big on Rural Health Startups, With a Silicon Valley Twist
States are spending rural health dollars on tech startups, betting that untested companies will succeed where doctors have vanished and hospitals have collapsed. Louisiana’s call for innovative technology drew more than 200 pitches, seeking from $250,000 to $3 million in seed money.
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Rising Healthcare Costs Have Hit Georgia’s Most Conservative District. But Its Politics Are Unlikely To Change.
With the expiration of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans, thousands of Georgians are paying more for coverage or going uninsured. In one of the state's reddest districts, the economic impact is growing faster than the political fallout.
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Growing Up Scared
A Generation of Kids Suffer as Trump Destabilizes Immigrant Families
Children in immigrant families are facing health threats from President Donald Trump’s policies: separation from parents detained or deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, economic and housing instability, withdrawal from health and nutrition programs, and an overarching environment of fear.
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Trump Forced To Reinstate Digital Equity Grant Program, Minus Race Criteria He Decried
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
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Readers Wrestle With Healthcare Inequalities and Want a Word With Congress
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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Indigenous Groups Are Exempt From Medicaid Work Rules, but Native Hawaiians Aren’t
Native Hawaiians will have to comply with the new work requirements in President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, despite facing significant obstacles to employment and healthcare.
By Ashley Mizuo -
Rural Americans Wait After Judge Delivers Mixed Ruling on Digital Equity Dollars
A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump can’t unilaterally kill the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act, but he also sided with the administration by saying using race as a factor in awarding the grants is unconstitutional. The split decision has halted digital-skills programs for ethnic and racial minorities.
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A NY Hospital Tried To Close Its Birthing Center. This City United To Fight Back.
Democrats and Republicans in Troy, New York, joined together to challenge a national Catholic health system determined to close the last birthing center in the county.