Texas will be receiving the biggest slice of the federal government’s funding for funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program.
The first rollout of $50 billion comes through legislation intended to be allotted over the course of five years from the fund Congress created earlier this year in tandem with slashing Medicaid funding by an estimated $1 trillion.
States made bids to receive portions of the onetime federal funding and Texas, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is slated to receive more than $281.3 million for the first year of the program in 2026 - $81 million more than what was requested, though its rank lags compared to its population. Texas has the most rural residents of any state and will receive about $60 per resident in a rural county, the lowest in the nation.
Alaska is getting the second biggest portion of $272.7 million a year.
While Texas is receiving the most funds, its rank lags compared to its population. Half of the federal dollars will be distributed equally to each state. Texas, which has the most rural residents of any state, will receive about $60 per resident in a rural county the lowest rate in the nation. The need for health care in rural communities is also higher because they tend to have higher uninsured rates; 76 counties in Texas have uninsured rates over 20%, and 60 of those counties are in rural areas, according to a report from the National Institute of Health.
The funds come as budget shortfalls and rising costs have forced Texas’ rural hospitals and clinics into a significant health care crisis.
“Rural Texans across the state will benefit from this historic federal investment,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press release. “We will strengthen our rural hospitals, expand access to critical mental and physical health care, and help reduce chronic disease through wellness and nutrition initiatives.”
The state’s health care agency said it will use the funds to strengthen rural health care clinics in a variety of ways, including creating wellness and nutrition programs to rural providers; educating and attracting health care professionals to work in rural areas; and modernizing resources and technology in rural centers.
Fourteen rural hospitals in Texas closed in the last decade, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, and over half of the remaining hospitals — 82 facilities — were at risk of closing. And 21 hospitals were at “immediate risk of closing.”