Sen. Josh Hawley shares priorities for rural hospitals, affordability

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, discussed his priorities for rural hospitals in Missouri and across the nation. Hawley said that changes to provider tax provisions by the budget reconciliation bill would prove to be a mistake, and he hopes Congress addresses them before they become effective.

In his speech, he also advocated for doubling the funds provided for the Rural Health Transformation Fund - currently at $50 billion - and improving cybersecurity efforts for rural hospitals. Hawley is a sponsor of the Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (S. 2169), AHA-supported legislation that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create a comprehensive workforce strategy to train cybersecurity professionals and develop partnerships to expand the cybersecurity workforce in rural hospitals.

Additionally, he spoke on ways to address rising health care costs and losses to health care access. Hawley suggested making health care expenses tax-deductible.

"It means every single American family would benefit from this," Hawley said. "That would lower health care costs by 30%-40% for many working families in this country."