 Tuesday, January 13, 2026 | | |
| | | | | BY MEG WINGERTER Colorado successfully applied for a share of the rural health care funding in the "big beautiful bill," and will get about $1 billion to spend on transformation over the next five years. Now comes the hard part: deciding how best to use that one-time money to try to shore up parts of the state dealing with declining populations and higher-than-average health costs. Rural hospitals aren
't thrilled with some of the state's ideas, though the department in charge of administering the funding says they misunderstood its intentions. In the coming months, health care providers and other groups will start submitting proposals to spend chunks of the money. We'll follow what Coloradans propose, and what gets funded. | | | | Last year’s H.R. 1 — also known as the “big beautiful bill” — allocated $50 billion for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program over five years. | | | | | The cut applies to residency programs, which train medical school graduates for three to seven years before they move into independent practice. | | | | | In Colorado, the frozen funds amount to more than $300 million meant to help with child care, social services and low-income families. | | | | | U.S. District Judge Cyrus Chung said Congress gave the Justice Department the power to issue subpoenas to investigate law-breaking, but no federal law prohibits gender-affirming care to minors. | | | | | The freeze will halt more than $10 billion to five states to help with child care, social services and low-income families, according to the New York Times. | | | | | The justices sided with the state’s only abortion clinic. | | | |
