( Iowa Capital Dispatch ) - Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday the state submitted an application for a new “Healthy Hometowns” initiative that could bring in more than $1 billion for rural health care over five years.

The state applied to the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, an initiative managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that was created by the “ One Big Beautiful Bill Act ” to provide funding for projects addressing health care shortages in rural communities.

This $50 billion fund , intended to dispense $10 billion annually for rural hospitals between 2026 and 2030, was created in part due to concerns that rural hospitals already facing financial struggles could close because of the cuts to Medicaid included in the budget reconciliation law

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