Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted that the One Big Beautiful Bill dramatically raises funding for rural hospitals, during Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting.
Kennedy was the first member of Trump’s Cabinet to provide an update on their work and emphasized the meeting is “about working Americans, bringing jobs back to this country, and particularly rural America.”
“I want to mention the Big, Beautiful Bill. Right now, we spend 7 percent of Medicaid dollars on rural hospitals. They’re getting the short end of the stick. It’s about $19 billion a year,” he explained.
“Under the Rural Transformation Program, we give them an extra $10 billion a year, so we’re raising an infusion of cash to rural hospitals and rural communities by 50 percent,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy said the funding boost will do wonders for rural communities.
“It’s going to be the biggest infusion in the history, and it’s going to restore and revitalize these communities,” he said.
“We can’t survive as a nation if we don’t honor our rural communities. They’re the source of our values, our virtues, our character, our economy, our food, and you are bringing that back,” he told Trump. “You are bringing those communities back.”
Kennedy also detailed that the United States is deep into Most Favored Nation (MFN) status negotiations with 14 different drug companies as he and Trump look to lower prices for American consumers.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has worked with Kennedy in the administration’s effort to bring down costs, and Lutnick stated that the MFN, in conjunction with the 232 pharmaceutical tariffs, will “really give Bobby the tools to go execute” the president’s plan.
Trump told Kennedy that securing MFN drug prices is the “most important thing that can be done.”
“We’re not talking about a 25% cut…we’re talking about a 1,500% cut,” Trump said.
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