U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of rural hospitals and healthcare providers in Texas. They discussed the new program and an infusion of federal funds as well as solutions to strengthen medical care and access in rural Texas and rural America.

“One of President Trump’s primary passions are the rural areas in this country,” Kennedy said at a news conference, adding that rural America is the backbone of the country.

“Rural areas, particularly in Texas, provide the food, the fiber, the energy that we use throughout our country.” They also provide cultural importance, as “the source of our values, our virtues, our characters,” Kennedy said.

“Rural America is in crisis,” he added. “Rural hospitals are absolutely critical for them surviving this crisis. These institutions are not just medical providers. They’re in most cases the single largest employer in those areas, have the highest paying jobs. And when the [rural communities] lose them, it’s not just the hospital that closes, it’s the pharmacy that closes. It’s the stores that close and the community collapses.”

“We have to preserve these rural hospitals,” he said, warning that “they are closing in an epidemic rate.”

The Rural Transformation Program allocates $50 billion over five years, $10 billion a year, a 50% increase from previous funding, Kennedy said.

“The funds have the capacity to save these rural hospitals, to give them a chance to stabilize themselves, to right the ship, and then to adopt innovation and work towards changes so that they can survive for decades in the future,” he said.

The first $25 billion is being distributed evenly to all 50 states. The second $25 billion will be allocated according to merit-based applications. Funds will be distributed according to several metrics, including infrastructure, innovative telehealth and AI, workforce quality and quantity improvement, measures to address staffing crises, prioritizing holistic care and preventative care that includes physical health, exercise, food, and other issues, Kennedy said.

Kennedy also said healthcare leaders in rural Texas already have “extraordinary cooperative relationships with each other. They came up with a series of ideas that … could propagate and spread that were very, very thoughtfully crafted. We’d like to see those kinds of things adopted throughout the country. I think you have an extraordinary quality of leadership in rural healthcare in this state.”

The federal funds are in addition to the nearly $500 million the state legislature allocated over the last four years to address mental healthcare needs in rural Texas, Abbott said. This legislative session, another $300 million was allocated, Abbott said.

“This money is truly going to transform what is going on and the delivery of healthcare in the rural settings in Texas,” Abbott said. Funding will prioritize pregnant women, new mothers, children, seniors and the uninsured, he said. Funding will also go to expand telehealth, including behavioral telehealth, and using “artificial intelligence to accelerate and advance and improve the provision of healthcare in rural settings,” he said.

Funding will also help with staff retention in rural areas. “There’s pay base issues, attracting the appropriate medical providers, whether it be doctors, nurses,” he said. The funds will address staffing issues “in ways that will lead to permanent solutions that will be lasting and enduring past the expiration of the funding that’s going to be provided here.”