News · Press Release

Arizona Gets Sixth-Lowest Amount From New Rural Hospital Fund, Despite Ciscomani Promises

Ciscomani fails to deliver funding after saying he’d been “a force at the table on this issue”
For months, Juan Ciscomani pointed to the creation of a (woefully underfunded) “rural health fund” as an excuse for voting for Medicaid cuts that are set to devastate health care facilities across rural Arizona.

Ciscomani even assured Arizonans that, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, he’d been a “force at the table” to make sure Arizona was at the top of the list for funding.

New reporting makes clear that Ciscomani failed – and Arizona patients, hospitals, and taxpayers are going to pay the price.
DCCC Spokesperson Lindsay Reilly:
“Juan Ciscomani is making clear to Arizona that he’s either ineffective, a liar, or both. Arizonans deserve a leader in Washington who will fight for them – not a coward who guts their health care to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”See for yourself…

Arizona Republic: Feds shortchanged Arizona on rural health dollars, Hobbs’ office says (1/2/26)

  • Arizona will receive $167 million for the 2026 federal fiscal year, the sixth-lowest amount of any state.
  • The rural health fund has been widely criticized by Democrats because it pales in comparison to the size of the politically sensitive GOP-led Medicaid cuts.
  • In Arizona alone the cuts will add up to more than a billion dollars annually when they go into effect in the late 2020s.
  • Just five states received less money than Arizona: New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Massachusetts.
  • Though Arizona received the sixth-smallest rural health award from CMS, it is the sixth-largest state in land area and seven of its 15 counties are classified as 100% rural.
  • Between the Medicaid cuts and the rising marketplace costs, Arizona is preparing for its uninsured population to surge, further straining rural hospitals.
  • Ciscomani — widely seen as one of the most electorally vulnerable members of Congress — has pointed to the fund to defend his vote in favor of the Trump-backed budget.
  • He voted for the package even after warning during budget negotiations that some of the Medicaid cuts would hurt rural health providers in the state.
  • Ciscomani, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, told reporters in August he was confident that Arizona would be prioritized in the rural health fund negotiations.
  • “We have been a force at the table on this issue,” he said at the time.
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