Oklahoma Senator Urges $223 Million Rural Health Funding to Reverse Hospital Closures

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Wednesday that $223 million in newly announced federal funding will significantly strengthen healthcare access across Oklahoma’s rural communities, calling the investment a major boost for hospitals, workforce development, and critical care services in underserved areas of the state.

During an interview on Wednesday, Mullin described the funding as coming from the Rural Health Transformation Program, which he said is a direct response to long-standing challenges facing hospitals and clinics in rural America.

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

“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 [Donald] Trump’s leadership — actually put $50 billion specifically for rural healthcare,” Mullin said.

He added that Oklahoma’s share of the funding will support workforce development, telemedicine expansion, and critical care services in remote areas of the state.

“It will help with the next workforce,” he said. “It will help with telemedicine, which is vitally important.”

Mullin emphasized that rural hospitals often play a limited but critical role in patient care, particularly in emergencies.

“Most of the time they are a transport,” he said.

“They are a life-stabilizing hospital that will allow this person to be transported to a larger hospital with more resources.”

He cited the loss of rural hospitals as a growing problem in Oklahoma and nationwide, noting that his home county of Adair, with about 6,000 residents, recently lost its only hospital.

“Unfortunately, we just lost that hospital several months ago,” Mullin stated.

The senator said the new funding could help reverse those closures by allowing facilities to reopen or qualify for critical access hospital status — a designation that provides additional federal support to rural hospitals with low patient volumes.

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