Governor Larry Rhoden yesterday announced that the federal Department of Hellth is giving South Dakota $189.4 million to subsidize rural health care. The money comes from the five-year, $50-billion Rural Health Transformation Program, part of the big ugly budget bill Congress passed in July.
That’s nice. But the big ugly bill is also cutting Medicaid by over $900 billion. Kaiser Family Foundation estimates Medicaid cuts in rural areas alone may total $137 billion, far outweighing the $50 billion from RHT. Medicaid losses in South Dakota may total over $840 million, more than quadruple the restricted-use RHT funding announced for South Dakota Monday and more than the $500 million total in RHT money that Governor Rhoden’s FY2027 budget anticipates.
The big ugly bill also cuts Medicare—I don’t have a state-by-state breakdown handy, but nationwide, Republicans are cutting $45 billion out of Medicare in this fiscal year and $491 billion by 2034.
Don’t be fooled by Governor Rhoden’s propaganda: his GOP leaders in Washington are cutting funds for health care in South Dakota.
I read somewhere that one of the cuts to Medicare will be to the tele health program, which is highly used in the Mobridge area. Some doctors from Avera in Aberdeen no longer drive here but once they are seen in person, they can continue through tele health. It saves a 202-mile trip to all those in need of specialty care.
I haven’t seen it mentioned but once but am deeply concerned.
Trump does this with everything. Ruin farmers markets then give the farmers half of what they lost. It comes with his name on the check. Such a giving guy.