Expanding access to quality health care, especially for vets and those in rural areas;
Expand access to quality health care, especially for veterans and those in rural areas.
Occurrences
U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Marsha Blackburn reintroduced their bipartisan Rural Health Innovation Act to increase access to health care in rural and underserved communities across the country.
Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative David Kustoff introduced their bicameral and bipartisan Rural Health Agenda, which includes the Save Struggling Hospitals Act, Rural Health Innovation Act, and Rural America Health Corps Act.
Senators Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, and Representative Scott DesJarlais are working to ensure Tennessee veterans maintain continuity of care following the McMinnville VA Clinic closure.
She emphasized the need for legislative action to address workforce shortages, financial pressures, and access to care in rural communities.
Blackburn, Duckworth Bill to Improve Access to Care for Rural Veterans Passes Committee
The Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act would ensure Tennessee Medicare patients have access to high-quality remote physiologic monitoring services to manage chronic conditions and help patients eliminate unnecessary hospital visits.
Expanding access to quality health care, especially for vets and those in rural areas;
Our bipartisan Protecting Air Ambulance Services for Americans Act would preserve critical access to life-saving air ambulance services for Tennesseans and all Americans, no matter where they live.
Evidence
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On March 26, 2026, Senator Marsha Blackburn, co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, and Representative David Kustoff introduced the Rural Health Agenda, comprising the Save Struggling Hospitals Act, Rural Health Innovation Act, and Rural America Health Corps Act. These bills aim to address financial strains on rural hospitals, expand urgent care services, and strengthen recruitment of health professionals in rural areas.
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On April 2, 2026, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee passed the Improving Access to Care for Rural Veterans Act, introduced by Senators Marsha Blackburn and Tammy Duckworth. The bill mandates the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish agreements between VA medical centers and civilian medical facilities in rural areas to enhance care accessibility for nearly 3 million veterans residing in these communities.
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On March 20, 2026, Senator Marsha Blackburn introduced the Recognizing Community Organizations for Veteran Engagement and Recovery (RECOVER) Act. This legislation aims to expand access to evidence-based mental health care for veterans by strengthening partnerships between the Department of Veterans Affairs and community-based organizations, addressing the high rates of veteran suicides and mental health challenges.
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On December 29, 2025, Senator Marsha Blackburn announced that Tennessee received nearly $207 million from the Rural Health Transformation Program. This funding, part of the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation supported by Blackburn, aims to strengthen rural health care by expanding services, eliminating maternity-care deserts, and improving preventive care in rural Tennessee communities.
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On April 6, 2026, Senator Marsha Blackburn highlighted the challenges facing rural health care in Tennessee, noting that since 2010, 18 rural hospitals in the state have closed or converted to models excluding inpatient care. She emphasized the need for legislative action to address workforce shortages, financial pressures, and access to care in rural communities.
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On April 30, 2025, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Mark Warner introduced the Rural Patient Monitoring (RPM) Access Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to ensure Medicare patients in rural and underserved communities have access to remote physiologic monitoring services, thereby lowering costs and improving access to care by using technology to collect and transmit patient health data to healthcare providers.
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On March 16, 2023, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Mark Warner reintroduced the Save Rural Hospitals Act. This bipartisan legislation seeks to amend the Medicare Area Wage Index formula, which has disproportionately harmed rural and low-income hospitals, to ensure fair reimbursement and help curb the trend of hospital closures in rural communities.
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On November 16, 2023, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution designating November 16 as National Rural Health Day. Introduced by Senator Marsha Blackburn and others, the resolution expresses a commitment to advancing policies that improve health care access and affordability for rural communities across the country.
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Tennessee's official RHTP page says the federal Rural Health Transformation Program gives Tennessee a $206,888,882.11 CMS/HHS award and that Tennessee's plan invests in reversing rural hospital decline, extending care access, modernizing technology, workforce development, telehealth, behavioral health, maternal care, and transportation. The page lists current competitive grants and RFPs, including opportunities that closed in August 2026 and RFPs active as of the Aug. 24-26 lookback window.
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The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee majority announced the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, describing it as comprehensive legislation to improve veterans' health care, benefits, and services. The committee's list of included bills names S.3033, the Improving Access to Care for Rural Veterans Act, and S.4137/H.R.2283, the RECOVER Act, identified as Sen. Blackburn's bill.
Assessments
Blackburn materially advanced parts of the promise through rural-health and veterans-care legislation, including rural hospital, remote monitoring, rural veterans access, and veteran mental-health bills. There is also concrete implementation evidence for Tennessee receiving and beginning to route about $206.9 million in federal Rural Health Transformation Program funding toward rural care access. However, the evidence does not show a broad, fully enacted expansion of quality health care for both veterans and rural communities; several cited actions remain introductions, committee passage, resolutions, or advocacy. This supports partial fulfillment during her Senate term, with clear effort credit.
Blackburn has made repeated same-term efforts directly aligned with the promise, including introducing or co-sponsoring rural hospital, remote monitoring, rural veterans care, and veteran mental health access bills, plus supporting rural health funding for Tennessee. However, the record provided mostly shows introductions, committee passage, resolutions, announcements, and funding support rather than full enactment and implementation of a broad expansion of quality health care access for veterans and rural communities. The promise is broad and outcome-focused, so these actions merit partial credit with an effort badge, not full delivery.
Senator Marsha Blackburn made multiple legislative and executive attempts to expand access to quality health care, especially for veterans and rural areas. She introduced and supported bipartisan bills targeting rural health care funding, infrastructure, hospital support, telehealth, and veterans' access to care. While some funds were delivered and bills passed committee stages, there is no evidence all key bills became law or that broad, systemic expansion was fully realized. Progress is evident, particularly in securing funding and advancing targeted legislation, but the comprehensive promise remains only partially fulfilled.