Oklahoma Senator: $223 Million Federal Funding Will Reopen Rural Hospitals and Save Lives

Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin announced Wednesday that $223 million in newly allocated federal funding will significantly strengthen healthcare access across rural communities, calling the investment a major boost for hospitals, workforce development, and critical care services in underserved areas.

Mullin described the funding as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program within President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he claimed addresses long-standing challenges faced by rural hospitals and clinics nationwide.

“This is the part of the One Big Beautiful Bill,” Mullin stated, emphasizing that the program aims to improve healthcare access in rural areas by tackling staffing shortages, infrastructure gaps, and geographic barriers.

When asked about previous concerns over hospital closures, Mullin noted: “While the Democrats were saying that thousands of people were going to die and morgues were going to be overflowing, the One Big Beautiful Bill — underneath President Trump’s leadership — actually put $50 billion specifically for rural healthcare.”

Mullin revealed that Oklahoma’s share of the funding will support workforce development initiatives, telemedicine expansion, and critical care services in remote areas. “It will help with the next workforce,” he said. “It will help with telemedicine, which is vitally important.”

He highlighted the essential role rural hospitals play during emergencies: “Most of the time they are a transport. They are a life-stabilizing hospital that will allow this person to be transported to a larger hospital with more resources.”

Mullin cited the recent loss of his home county’s only hospital in Adair County — a community of about 6,000 residents — as an example of the growing crisis. “Unfortunately, we just lost that hospital several months ago,” he said.

The senator added that the new funding could help reverse such closures by enabling facilities to reopen or qualify for critical access hospital status, which provides additional federal support to rural hospitals with low patient volumes.

“This critical care with $223 million can help reopen that hospital,” Mullin stated.