Report: H.R.1 cuts outpace rural health funds in Ohio

By Terri Dee

Ohio could lose thousands of jobs and billions of dollars because of House Resolution 1, the law passed last year and known as President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” according to a healthcare policy group.

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio said Trump’s Rural Health Transformation Fund, a major initiative approved under H.R. 1, does not make up for the law’s wide-ranging cuts to social wellness programs. A Commonwealth Fund analysis found the loss of funding for healthcare and the SNAP federal food assistance program could eliminate up to 52,000 jobs in Ohio and reduce the state’s gross domestic product by about $5.5 billion.

Brian O'Rourke, healthcare policy analyst for the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, said families will struggle to afford basic costs.

“We're losing a lot of federal funding for these programs, which is going to potentially shift more costs onto Ohio, which will pressure our state economy,” O’Rourke pointed out. “We're going to see an intersection with the broader affordability trends that people have been talking about for the last year.”

Congress authorized Ohio to receive $200 million from the Rural Health Transformation Fund to address concerns Medicaid cuts could lead to rural hospital closures. The program will invest $50 billion nationwide by 2030.

Critics argued it will not be enough to save Ohio’s medical workforce and will leave too many workers unemployed.

O’Rourke wants to see policies to improve the structure of the U.S. health care system and address the underlying drivers of high health care spending and access issues. Because H.R. 1 is still being implemented, he pointed out his organization’s current goal is to mitigate the negative effects on health coverage and affordability.

“There are certain provisions where states can actually request to delay implementation of some provisions, like work requirements,” O’Rourke noted. “There are avenues, I think, like in the short term, where it's really about trying to blunt the current expected impacts that are coming from H.R. 1.”

O’Rourke added lawmakers’ decision to eliminate enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits is pushing premiums out of an affordable range.

He reported the Health Policy Institute of Ohio saw 100,000 state residents drop their ACA coverage this year, as many people do not have an alternative for federal health insurance. Some states are not waiting on federal action and are taking on rising healthcare costs themselves.