Missouri senator proposes bill repealing Trump's cuts to Medicare - which he previously supported

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley today proposed a new bill repealing all of the Medicare cuts implemented through Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill."

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley.

Hawley previously offered criticism to the bill as one of the only Republican outliers who were indifferent about voting for it in the Senate earlier this month. Hawley, along with Senator Rand Paul, criticized the bill for cutting over $1 trillion from the healthcare budget, impacting rural hospitals as well as Medicare accessibility for over 100,000 Americans.

Yet, the Missouri senator nevertheless voted for the bill when it reached the U.S. Senate, possibly swaying the narrow 50-50 vote to the favor of the GOP with the tiebreaking vote of Vice President JD Vance.

The cuts also affected how states fund their share of Medicare expenditures, with it setting a cap of provider taxes (revenue source for local Medicaid coverage) to 3.5% versus the previous 6%. This has already had a detrimental effect on rural hospitals that may not be able to sustain continued operations with less revenue, especially in the conservative Southern states like Hawley's.

L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital in Alabama, among the hospitals in the state at risk of closure after the Trump tax bill.

Hawley, in an effort to salvage this situation, introduced the Protect Medicaid and Rural Hospitals Act to Congress which would to three things: repeal the Trump tax bill's cuts to Medicare by removing the reduced limit on provider taxes, expand the rural health transformation fund double fold, and extend the fund longer.

Hawley stated following his introduction of the bill, "We should also increase our support for rural hospitals around the country. Under the recent reconciliation bill, Missouri will see an extra $1 billion for hospitals over the next four years. I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently."

As of now, no other senators have cosponsored the bill, but the American Hospital Association (AHA) endorsed the bill, with support from rural-health advocates and rural hospitals most likely to come into fruition.

The bill was referred to a committee vote, with neither Republican nor Democratic support yet.