Today, Donald Trump held a rural health roundtable to tout his Rural Health Transformation Program. What Trump forgot to mention is that his Big Ugly Bill cut over $134 billion in rural Medicaid funding, yet the rural health fund is projected to cover only about 37% of those losses over the next five years. 

Trump’s “signature achievement” slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid, putting more than 300 rural hospitals at risk of closure and causing more than one in four nursing homes to close. The cuts put 10 million people at risk of losing their health insurance, forcing residents in rural areas to face an impossible choice: either travel long distances or go without the care they need.

In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:

“Donald Trump has decimated rural health care. Trump’s new fund barely makes a dent in the massive cuts from his Big Ugly Bill, which devastated already struggling rural hospitals and health clinics. His Medicaid cuts, combined with his refusal to extend the ACA tax credits, have made health care unaffordable for millions, closed rural hospitals, and his ‘great health care plan’ does nothing to meaningfully lower costs. Everyday Americans, especially those in rural communities across the country, are facing impossible choices between getting the lifesaving care they need or going without it.”

Yesterday, Trump introduced his health care “plan,” which includes minimal proposals with scarce details and does not take meaningful action to lower health care costs for everyday Americans. Trump’s plan would undermine the ACA — including protections for those with preexisting conditions — and could push the system into a “death spiral” —  and his own administration officials questioned whether his direct cash payments to Americans were “sustainable.”