Thune: Republicans Lead Nationwide Effort to Strengthen Rural Health Care

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Thune: Republicans Lead Nationwide Effort to Strengthen Rural Health Care

“Republicans will continue to work to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Click here to watch the video.

14 thoughts on “Thune: Republicans Lead Nationwide Effort to Strengthen Rural Health Care”

  1. Senator Thune’s efforts to introduce a bill ostensibly addressing the significant cuts to Medicare coverage are nothing more than a façade. It’s akin to amputating a leg and then presenting a walker as a benevolent gesture—an empty promise masking a devastating reality. This approach is an affront to the very foundations of healthcare support, highlighting a disturbing trend of prioritizing political expediency over the well-being of the American people. We must demand accountability and genuine solutions, not superficial fixes that leave vulnerable citizens worse off.

  2. “Republicans will continue to work to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.” Sen. John Thune

    You are joking, right?

    They have drastically reduced access to Medicaid, and they allowed ACA (Obamacare) premiums to double on the first of the year. This will leave millions and millions of Americans without coverage in 2026.

    But, of course, they have $50 Billion dollars for PROVIDERS. You know… the people that matter.

    It’s just despicable.

    1. elk, nothing limits access to healthcare more effectively than enrollment in Medicaid.

      One of the reasons people on Medicaid use hospital EDs 2-3x more than people with private or no insurance is that they have no where else to go.

  3. Senator Thune, the Big Beautiful Bill you shepherded through the Senate cut almost a trillion dollars out of Medicaid over the next ten years. You then made certain the enhanced ACA subsidies expired. Both programs had substantially positive impacts on SD and rural America but you helped end them. If you were truly concerned about those less well off financially, you would not have done this.

  4. Thune will have less to worry about re rural health after 10% of rural hospitals are closed. Grow a pair Thune Do something, ANTHING to stop this clown. You are sad

    1. The thing about a rural lifestyle that policy makers, who invariably live in congested cities, don’t get is that it is a CHOICE.
      While policy makers cannot imagine enjoying life miles away from traffic, high rise buildings, bars, restaurants, etc, some of us like it. How far we are willing to travel for medical care is our choice. If it were a problem we would move into town. We don’t want to live in town. We think people who live within city limits are crazy.
      What with rural electric coops putting our power lines underground, every farm will soon have a helicopter landing zone. We don’t need a whole lot of little hospitals, we need more flying medical teams.

  5. Talk the talk John, how about some action? 27 years in DC and what have you don for health care it is rising cost? John Thune, South Dakota is now John Thune, DC. Remember what you ran on against Daschle? It takes more than owning a house in South Dakota.

  6. The best way to reduce the cost of your medical care is to reduce the size of your waistband.
    The government can’t do that for you, and most of us would object if they tried.

  7. getting rural health care isn’t a problem.
    Getting prior approvals for prescription drugs is.

    Used to be, all you needed to get a prescription filled was a 3″ x 5″ piece of paper with the doctor’s handwritten note. You took it to the pharmacy and got the drug,
    Now you need prior approval from a bureaucrat who must lie awake nights trying to figure out how to make the process as difficult as possible.
    For the past week the Walmart pharmacy has been unable to refill a prescription for lack of a prior approval. The clinic staff says they have submitted forms to no avail. They have called the insurance company “but they won’t budge.” Daily phone calls to everybody involved have not resolved anything. Yesterday the Resolution manager at the insurance company told me “oh, it looks like they didn’t complete Line 47.” They need to resubmit the whole form.
    Line FORTY-SEVEN??? !!!! How many pages is the request for prior approval form???

    Meanwhile, efforts to get a prescription filled at the VA pharmacy have hit another prior approval roadblock. The existing prior approval doesn’t expire until 11-26-2026 but It’s not good enough, they need a new one. I hope they get line 47 right.

    It should come as no surprise that medical clinics now employ staff who do nothing but work with insurance companies, getting prior approvals. The only way this makes health care cheaper is by discouraging doctors from ordering drugs and treatments, and making patients give up trying to get their refills. You have to want to stay alive very badly to get anything done.

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