{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://barr.house.gov/press-releases?ID=006AD26F-EAA3-488F-9A87-17D7EA0D9DC2", "Barr Calls Out Beshear Over Inaccurate Rural Hospital Claims", "2026-08-25", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "House", "KY", "Andy Barr", "B001282", "barr.house.gov", "barr", "https://barr.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY-06) called on Governor Andy Beshear to explain why his administration\u2019s $212.9 million federal rural health plan does not clearly identify or prioritize the 35 Kentucky hospitals Beshear repeatedly claimed would close because of H.R. 1.\n\nIn a letter to Governor Beshear, Barr highlighted the discrepancy between the Governor\u2019s repeated public warnings and his administration\u2019s recently announced plan for $212.9 million in federal funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program.\n\nFor months, Beshear has told Kentuckians that 35 rural hospitals were at risk because of the legislation. On June 23, 2025, he stated that \u201c35 rural hospitals in Kentucky will close.\u201d Days later, Beshear warned that \u201c35 hospitals are under the threat of closing, stripping care from families, cutting jobs and crippling local economies.\u201d He later claimed Congress had voted to \u201cclose 35 rural hospitals in our state\u201d and has continued repeating these claims dozens of times.\n\nHowever, the Sheps Center analysis associated with the 35-hospital figure never concluded that 35 Kentucky hospitals would close. The analysis identified financially vulnerable hospitals from across the country but did not conclude that those hospitals would close because of H.R. 1. Senate Democrats later used their own selected criteria to identify 35 Kentucky hospitals as being at increased risk, but neither the Sheps analysis nor the Senators\u2019 list concluded that those hospitals would close. The analysis was also conducted before the final bill became law and did not account for subsequent changes to the final law, including the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program.\n\n\u201cThe Rural Health Transformation Program gives Governor Beshear the resources to protect rural hospitals,\u201d Rep. Barr said. \u201cIf 35 hospitals are truly on a path toward closure, as Governor Beshear repeatedly claims, why doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t his plan reflect it?\u201d\n\nCongressional Republicans created the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program to help rural providers navigate the Medicaid reforms and preserve access to care. Kentucky has now received $212.9 million in first-year funding through that program.\n\nThe law also reforms Medicaid to strengthen eligibility and program integrity while putting the program on a more sustainable fiscal path. Importantly, the reforms do not eliminate Medicaid funding or stop its growth. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, federal spending on Medicaid and CHIP is still projected to rise from $668 billion in 2026 to $892 billion in 2036, an increase of roughly one-third.\n\nWith Kentucky now receiving $212.9 million specifically to strengthen rural health care, the Beshear administration still has not explained how that funding will address the 35 hospitals the Governor repeatedly warned were at risk. Its plan does not identify those hospitals, specify how much funding they will receive or explain how its five initiatives would prevent the closures and healthcare job losses he predicted.\n\nBarr is requesting that the Beshear administration:\n\nProvide the evidence supporting the claim that 35 Kentucky hospitals would close and state whether the administration conducted its own hospital-by-hospital analysis or relied on the pre-enactment Sheps Center analysis and related Senate materials.\n\nState whether the administration still believes each of those hospitals is at risk of closure.\n\nExplain how much of Kentucky\u2019s $212.9 million award will directly benefit those hospitals.\n\nExplain how the administration will address any hospital that does not receive or directly benefit from that assistance. State whether Beshear continues to stand by his assertion that 35 Kentucky hospitals will close and, if not, publicly correct the record.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-26T05:33:32Z", "2026-08-26T05:34:56Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://barr.house.gov/press-releases?ID=006AD26F-EAA3-488F-9A87-17D7EA0D9DC2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 22.43754267692566, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}