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 846 results
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Medicaid Work Rules Don’t Apply to Native Americans. They Could Still Lose Coverage.
Work requirements don’t apply to tribal citizens. But federal health officials provided limited guidance on how states should check eligibility. “I’m extremely nervous,” a North Carolina tribal healthcare administrator said.
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Fed Up With the Healthcare Industry, This Red State Capped Insulin Prices for Patients
Republicans and Democrats in North Dakota worked together to limit what people with diabetes have to pay for insulin, joining a growing bipartisan push across the country to protect patients.
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Dubious Buys Raise Alarm Over Local Control of Opioid Cash
Much of the questionable opioid settlement spending in 2025 occurred at the county and city level, where decision-makers often have no background in addiction policy.
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Nebraska Rushed Medicaid Work Rules. Then a Cancer Patient Was Told He’d Lost Coverage.
Nebraska budgeted $8.2 million for contractors to comply with Medicaid changes under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Health clinics and organizations advocating for poor and working-class Nebraskans say the rollout of Medicaid work requirements has been rife with problems.
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Our Reporters Discuss Healthcare Costs — And What Changes the Midterms May Portend
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media in recent weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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Trump Administration Delays Awards Slated To Improve Rural America’s Health
State leaders who scrambled to win and begin spending their first-year shares of Republicans’ five-year, $50 billion fund are in the dark about how much they’ll receive in the Rural Health Transformation Program’s second year after a federal office notified states that more time is needed to make allocations.
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A Few Miles From the US Capitol, Dozens Slept in Their Cars, Waiting for Free Care
If you’ve heard about how people are struggling with affording healthcare but haven’t been touched by it or seen it, then this pop-up clinic just outside Washington, D.C., put the problem on full display.
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Georgia Helped Inspire the Medicaid Work Rules. Its Own Rules Could Soon End.
For years, Georgia was the only state to require some Medicaid enrollees to work to obtain and keep coverage. Those rules could expire just as the federal Medicaid work requirements they helped inspire roll out across most of the country.
By Briah Lumpkins and Sam Whitehead -
Data Center Health Worries Animate Midterm Campaigns
Opposition to the rapid emergence of data centers in states such as Ohio and Arizona has ginned up activism and unified voters. A range of public health issues have played into the resistance.
By Stephanie Armour and Amanda Seitz -
She Needed an EpiPen. But First, an Urgent Care Asked Her To Pay.
An uninsured woman sought help at a Virginia urgent care center after being stung by a wasp. She said she was stunned when the center asked her to pay before giving her a shot to reverse her allergic reaction.
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Hospital Beds for the Nation’s Sickest Kids Are Disappearing
Hospitals nationwide are cutting intensive services for kids in critical care. Many cite too few patients, staffing shortages, and money problems. As a result, kids who need lifesaving care must travel farther. Pediatricians expect more cutbacks in the wake of federal Medicaid cuts.
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Many Medicare Patients Could Lose Access to Remote Monitoring Devices
A proposed federal rule could dramatically reduce access to remote patient monitoring programs for people on Medicare. The services aim to keep patients out of the hospital by giving them devices to monitor their health at home, but critics say there isn’t enough oversight.
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GOP Congressman in California Swing-District Race Defends Vote for Medicaid Cuts
In a race that could help decide control of Congress, Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao is trying to hold on to his swing-district seat. The congressman didn’t mention healthcare at a recent campaign rally in Bakersfield, but voters can't stop talking about it.
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Trump Dangles Rural Health Dollars To Push States To Change Hospital Laws
The Trump administration has tied billions in rural health funding for states partly to the policy commitments they make, including ending their certificate of need, or CON, laws governing the construction of new hospitals.
By Andrew Jones -
Hidden Help
States Are Forcing Hospitals To Offer More People Financial Aid. In Oregon, It’s Working.
Oregon passed a law to require hospitals to proactively screen patients to see if they qualify for financial aid. Patients got immediate relief. Hospitals pushed to roll back the law following federal cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies.
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New Arrivals in the ER? Georgia Gears Up To Solve Rural Maternal Health Crisis
Most of Georgia’s counties are without a labor and delivery unit. To fill the gap, the state is looking to equip emergency rooms to handle obstetric emergencies. Advocates and doctors worry, however, that the ER is being used as a stopgap.
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GOP Focuses on Fraud, Seeking To Redirect Voters’ Ire Over Healthcare Costs
The anti-fraud efforts highlight a broader political fight ahead of the midterms. Republicans say they’re protecting taxpayer dollars by going after bad actors. Democrats contend the administration is — with insufficient evidence — targeting blue states to cut programs the GOP has long sought to shrink.
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Journalists Go Behind Health Headlines From Georgia, Michigan, and Russia
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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‘We Are Seen as Disposable’: Rural Residents Fight a Proposed Gas Pipeline
Research shows natural gas pipelines — and the public health risks they carry — are concentrated in low-income and minority areas where people suffer higher rates of poverty and physical disabilities and have fewer means to respond to crises.
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‘Medicare for All’ Message Attracts Voters Buckling Under Medical Bills
The idea of scrapping the U.S. health insurance system for a massive expansion of government-funded healthcare isn’t new. But voters hit by ballooning private health insurance costs are rallying behind midterm candidates calling for universal coverage.
By Kate Wells