WASHINGTON D.C. – Congressional Republicans and President Trump recently delivered critical resources to rural communities in Missouri and across the United States that have long struggled to establish access to basic health care services. Under the new tax cuts for working families law, a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) was created to help expand access to care in rural communities. States can apply for funding to help improve and sustain access to quality health care services and care delivery systems for such communities while recruiting and retaining a rural clinical workforce.

In a letter sent to Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, Missouri Department of Social Services Director Jessica Bax, and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Sarah Willson highlighting the RHTP program as a critical lifeline for rural Missouri and calling on officials to incorporate key policies in their application for RHTP resources, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) and members of the Missouri congressional delegation detail the immense health care challenges facing such communities:

“For the 20 percent of Americans – 60 million in total – that live in rural communities, insufficient access to health care is a daily crisis and contributes to worse health outcomes. These patients are often forced to drive an hour or more for basic medical services and face critical barriers when trying to receive specialized services such as oncology or maternity and obstetric care. The inability to directly and efficiently access care is devastating to rural communities across the country. It is unsurprising that rural patient cancer mortality is 13 percent higher than that of urban patients; that rural maternal mortality is twice as high as urban maternal mortality; and that rural mortality overall is 43 percent higher than urban mortality across natural causes. Access challenges are worsened when rural communities lose these critical service lines, or worse, their entire hospital facilities. Missouri has had 12 rural hospitals close in the past decade, reducing access to care for thousands of Missourians. Nationwide, nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed in that timeframe, while more than 100 rural hospitals have stopped providing maternity services in just the last five years. Nearly 400 rural hospitals have stopped providing chemotherapy services since 2014. We are committed to identifying the root causes of rural America’s health care access problem and engaging in meaningful solutions, such as the RHTP, to improve health care for the 60 million American families that need it most.”

The letter from members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation follows a letter sent by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Smith to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz calling on the Trump Administration to ensure that RHTP funding goes toward truly rural communities and to monitor the use of these critical resources to serve the needs of those populations most deserving and most in need of support.

Read the full letter from members of Missouri’s Congressional delegation here.

READ: Chairman Smith Applauds Trump Administration’s Quick Action to Advance Rural Health Transformation Program