Derrick Van Orden likes to claim that he has boosted funding for rural hospitals, but the facts tell a different story.
New reporting finds that following Van Orden’s vote to gut Medicaid, “hospitals in Van Orden’s congressional district are projected to lose more than $42 millionin annual revenue.”
Van Orden has repeatedly tried to cover his tracks by bragging that he secured $203 million to Wisconsin from the so-called “Rural Health Transformation Program” for hospitals in West Central Wisconsin.
FACT CHECK: “Projections shared by KFF last summer showed Wisconsin losing $7 billion in federal Medicaid cuts over 10 years,” meaning $700 million in cuts per year. That’s a nearly $500 million shortfall in cuts per year that Van Orden thinks families should be grateful for.
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Per usual, Derrick Van Orden is full of shit. Van Orden voted to cut billions in rural health care, including tens of millions of dollars from hospitals in the Third District, and it’s Wisconsin families who have to foot the bill.”
Read more from the Wisconsin Independent:
- Hospitals in Van Orden’s congressional district are projected to lose more than $42 million in annual revenue under the budget law, according to data compiled last summer by Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank and advocacy group.
- After Trump signed the bill into law in July 2025, Third Way published its analysis that found U.S. hospitals would lose $24 billion in annual revenue due to the budget law’s cuts to Medicaid. The group published hospital-specific projections using data from the National Academy for State Health Policy’s Hospital Cost Tool and state-specific Medicaid cuts data from KFF, a health policy nonprofit.
- KFF said that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirement provision in the budget law would reduce Medicaid spending by an estimated $326 billion over 10 years and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 5.3 million in 2034.
- Van Orden has celebrated $203 million coming to Wisconsin through the Rural Health Transformation Program under the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a program provided for in the 2025 budget law… But projections shared by KFF last summer showed Wisconsin losing $7 billion in federal Medicaid cuts over 10 years. Nationally, KFF found $137 billion in federal Medicaid spending reductions in rural areas, compared to $50 billion provided by the rural health program.
- Last month, the national organization Protect Our Care released a report that counted three Wisconsin hospitals at risk of cuts or closure and three clinics that closed or are closing since the budget law was passed. Healthcare provider closures are especially critical in rural parts of the state where alternatives are limited.
