Gov. Beshear defends rural hospital funding after scathing letter from Rep. Barr

FRANKFORT, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) – Gov. Andy Beshear is pushing back against Representative Andy Barr over claims about a looming funding crisis for rural Kentucky hospitals.

Tuesday, Beshear released a statement calling on Barr to “undo the damage you have caused to our state’s rural healthcare system and the people and communities they serve and support.” The governor said he is responding to a letter he received from Barr on August 25, 2026.

Rep. Barr’s letter calls for clarification about how passing H.R. 1 (also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill) would endanger 35 hospitals in the Commonwealth. Barr said the governor repeatedly claimed medical facilities would close days after the bill passed.

Barr also said Beshear’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) conflicts with his concerns about hospitals shuttering.

Gov. Beshear said Tuesday that RHTP was a necessary measure to counteract the severe budget cuts coming to Kentuckians using Medicaid. Beshear said that while RHTP secures $212 million for patients using the government program, the funding cannot be applied to hospitals needing cash.

“When the RHTP was announced, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Dr. Mehmet Oz stated in an op-ed that these dollars cannot be used to fund struggling hospitals,” said Gov. Beshear. “They put it in even starker terms: ‘Throwing money at struggling hospital operations is like a Band-Aid on a severed artery, leaving a broken system in place.'”

Rep. Barr accused the governor of hand-picking criteria to show hospitals at risk of closing. Barr said an analysis by Sheps Center disproves the claims and Beshear’s research did not account for updates approved in the final version of the bill.

“The Rural Health Transformation Program gives Governor Beshear the resources to protect rural hospitals,” Rep. Barr said. “If 35 hospitals are truly on a path toward closure, as Governor Beshear repeatedly claims, why doesn’t his plan prioritize those hospitals and reinforce them with the hundreds of millions of dollars that Congressional Republicans provided his administration in July of last year? If he stands by that claim, why doesn’t his plan reflect it?”

Gov. Beshear said the $212 million RHTP funding will not even come close to covering the gap caused by the federal cuts in H.R. 1.

“Healthcare is a basic human right, and it was a priority for me and my administration to submit this application and fight for funding to support our rural health communities – especially following the passage of devastating Medicaid cuts,” said Gov. Beshear. “I am proud our community-driven plan was accepted in full.”