Weekly Beat: Rural Wellness Act
- Voice for Values
- May 31
- 6 min read
A Letter From Voice For Values Founder, Judy Stahl:
"We're All Going To Die"
Some 35 years ago, I lived with my family in a very small town in rural Utah. How small was it? It was so small that we dialed four numbers on the phone to call our neighbors. It was so small that there were no stoplights in the entire county. It was so small that the number of turkeys compared to people was more than 100 to one. Yet, a pediatrician in our community was named National Family Physician of the Year. He was an excellent doctor, but this recognition was in large part due to his pioneering use of telemedicine and the lives saved and quality of lives improved as a result.
In our main story today, we are promoting the passage of the Rural Wellness Act. At Voice for Values, we believe that healthcare is a human right. Unfortunately, that's not the position of the majority of Republicans in Congress today; case in point, the junior Senator from Iowa.
I also lived in the rural state of Iowa for eight formative years. It is a place that forever holds a special place in my heart. Yesterday, Iowa's junior Senator, Joni Ernst (the same Joni Ernst solely responsible for disgraceful Pete Hegseth being in the position of Secretary of Defense), spoke derisively to attendees at her town hall in rural Butler County, Iowa. In response to an attendee expressing with emotion that the loss of Medicaid would mean that "people will die", Ernst replied, "Well, we're all going to die." Do I need to say that her callous comment did not go down well with her sincerely concerned constituents?
Not.
In all seriousness, sarcasm does not come across well from me. And I do not apologize for that.
The importance of respecting and meeting the needs of rural Americans cannot be overestimated. Voice for Values is focused on ensuring that the needs and concerns of voters in rural America are heard, amplified, and addressed.
Please continue to maintain compassion in your heart, joy in your life, and plenty of actual humor in your day.
For the future,
Judy
Main Story: The Rural Wellness Act
The widening health divide between rural and urban America has become a quiet crisis. Across the country’s small towns and farming communities, hospitals are shuttering, doctors are leaving, and residents are facing longer drives and higher costs for basic care. It's not just inconvenient — it's dangerous. The Rural Wellness Act, recently introduced in Congress, offers a vital lifeline to these underserved areas, bringing much-needed resources, innovation, and support to strengthen health and wellness where it's needed most. And,crucially, the Rural Wellness Act will lower the nation’s overall healthcare costs and strengthen the economy.
Sounds good doesn’t it? Here’s what it does?
Expanding Telehealth Access: The Act invests in broadband infrastructure and supports rural clinics in adopting telehealth platforms, allowing residents to access specialists and routine care without traveling hours.
Funding for Rural Clinics and Hospitals: It provides financial support for struggling rural hospitals, incentivizes reopening of closed facilities, and funds mobile health units that can reach the most isolated communities.
Workforce Development: The Act creates loan forgiveness programs and new residency pipelines to attract primary care physicians, nurses, and mental health professionals to rural areas, thus lessening wait times for rural patients who need to see a physician.
Community Wellness Grants: It allocates funding for local wellness initiatives such as nutrition programs, mental health awareness campaigns, substance abuse prevention, and physical activity infrastructure like walking trails and community fitness programs.
Rural Americans suffer higher rates of chronic illness, mental health issues, and preventable hospitalizations than their urban counterparts. But here's what often goes unsaid: investing in rural health is not just a moral imperative — it’s a financial one.
A patient with a chronic or rapidly progressing illness is more expensive to treat, and that cost often gets passed to the rest of us, due to many rural patients not having access to providers, health insurance, or affordable options for preventative care. Case in point, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that rural residents are more likely to delay care until conditions worsen, leading to more expensive emergency interventions and hospital stays¹. A study in Health Affairs found that avoidable hospitalizations — many of which occur in rural areas due to lack of preventive care — cost the U.S. healthcare system over $30 billion annually².
The Rural Wellness Act addresses these issues head on, by increasing the availability of providers in rural communities, and establishing access to primary preventative care.
A RAND Corporation analysis found that expanding access to primary care in underserved areas could reduce total healthcare spending by up to 18% per patient per year³, largely by cutting down on ER visits, late-stage disease treatment, and hospital readmissions.
By prioritizing preventive care, chronic disease management, and local access, the Rural Wellness Act helps intercept health crises before they escalate into costlier emergencies.
But, wait. There’s more.
As a progressive organization, one of Voice for Values key beliefs is that health care is a universal right. Universal healthcare is the only way to guarantee that every American has access to the care they need, regardless of their income. There’s just one problem: replacing our current system with any of the myriad of ways to guarantee universal access is prohibitively expensive. Critics frequently cite the high cost of expanded federal programs as a reason to oppose Medicare for All or public option initiatives.
The way to solve this: reduce costs first.
By lowering the actual cost of delivering care, especially in high-need rural regions, the Rural Wellness Act lays critical groundwork. It demonstrates that smart, targeted investment can bend the cost curve downward. It also shows that expanding care can be done incrementally and affordably. Moreover, it shows that strategic public health investments are good for the financial health of all Americans. The World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) have both found that every dollar invested in public health yields between $2 and $4 in economic return⁴ through increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and lower long-term healthcare costs.
When people are healthier, they work more, earn more, and rely less on public assistance. A healthier rural population also means a more stable agricultural sector, stronger supply chains, and less disruption in critical industries that drive U.S. exports. One Brookings Institution analysis concluded that poor population health, particularly in rural and low-income communities, is one of the biggest causes for stagnation of our national GDP⁵.
Moreover, a 2023 study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that sustained investment in disease prevention and primary care could reduce the federal deficit by over $100 billion over ten years⁶, primarily through Medicare and Medicaid savings. In other words, investing in rural health isn’t a drain on the treasury — it’s a down payment on a healthier, more prosperous, and fiscally stable nation. This is a downpayment we desperately need in the wake of the financial cliff we find ourselves in due to our current deficit.
Our Take
The Rural Wellness Act is more than a policy proposal. It’s a statement that rural America deserves investment, care, and a fighting chance at health and wellness. But it’s also a strategic national investment: by strengthening rural health systems, we reduce pressure on our overburdened emergency rooms, lower the incidence of costly chronic diseases, improve public health outcomes across the board, and grow our collective economic stability in the process.
If we want to eventually realize the promise of universal healthcare in this country, we must first prove that health reform can be effective, efficient, and equitable. And if we want to grow the economy and reduce the national deficit, investing in public health is one of the most powerful levers we have.
The Rural Wellness Act does all of the above. Congress must seize this opportunity to bring meaningful change to the communities that feed us, power us, and embody the resilience of America. The Rural Wellness Act is not just good politics — it’s smart economics, and the right thing to do.
Take Action: Support the Rural Wellness Act
Our Sources
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2022). Rural Health Strategy. https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/equity-initiatives/rural-health
Health Affairs. (2019). The High Cost of Avoidable Hospitalizations in the U.S. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00766
RAND Corporation. (2014). Primary care access and cost savings: A literature review. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR827.html
OECD. (2019). The Heavy Burden of Obesity: The Economics of Prevention. https://www.oecd.org/health/the-heavy-burden-of-obesity-67450d67-en.htm
Brookings Institution. (2020). Why improving health is essential to boosting economic growth in rural America. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-improving-health-is-essential-to-boosting-economic-growth-in-rural-america/
Congressional Budget Office. (2023). The Budgetary Effects of Policies to Prevent and Manage Chronic Conditions. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58940
Trust for America’s Health. (2022). The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America's Public Health System: Trends, Risks, and Recommendations. https://www.tfah.org/report-details/publichealthfunding2022/
World Health Organization. (2016). Health in All Policies: Framework for Country Action. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241506908
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