Averting a Rural Healthcare Collapse in Ohio

I am writing to you as a concerned constituent in Franklin County. While I appreciate Ohio’s recent $202 million award from the federal Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Fund, we must be honest about the math: this covers less than 10% of the $5.1 billion Ohio stands to lose in federal Medicaid funding this year alone. You have the power to prevent a catastrophe that federal policy has set in motion. I am specifically asking you to: 1. Repeal the "Medicaid Trigger": The current state budget language that threatens to end Medicaid expansion if federal funding fluctuates is a death sentence for our rural hospitals, which rely on these reimbursements to stay solvent. 

2. Supplement the RHT Fund: Ohio ranks 46th in the nation in RHT funding per rural resident ($70 per person). We cannot modernise our system on "pocket change." I urge you to create a State Rural Health Bridge Fund using Ohio's budget surplus to ensure our 57 rural hospitals do not close. 

3. Prioritize People over "Innovation": Technology hubs and telehealth are useless if the local resident has lost their insurance and cannot afford the "innovative" care being offered. You often speak about "Ohio's Heart." Right now, the heart of our rural communities—our healthcare system—is in cardiac arrest. I am asking you to lead with empathy and pragmatism to save it.