Focus on needs, and do it fast

“The program tackles the root causes of rural health care failure. It gives states the tools to design solutions that last, not Band-Aids that fail.”

That was Dr. Mehmet Oz, on the speedily unrolled Rural Health Transformation Program that will make available $50 billion — a possible $10 billion per year to states — each fiscal year from 2026 through 2030. Four years of potential federal funding, half of which is to be distributed evenly to all 50 states IF they apply for it; and half to be distributed based on health care metrics.

Federal officials have given states until Nov. 5 (yes, about seven weeks from now) to come up with what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he hopes will be “bold, audacious proposal ideas as strong as the people (governors) serve,” to get some of the money to improve