Welch joined Punchbowl News for a summit on expanding access to rural health care 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today joined Punchbowl News for a discussion on the state of rural health care, and his bipartisan work to expand patient access to health care in rural communities. In his remarks, Senator Welch highlighted how President Trump’s reckless tax and spending bill will wreak havoc on rural health care systems by driving up prices and making it harder for patients to access affordable care. 

“Health care is absolutely crucial to the well-being of all of us—your family, your business, the taxpayers—we have to have it. And that’s true whether you’re in a red state or blue state, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat. There are really three issues in health care, none of which are addressed in the One Big Beautiful Bill: one is the quality of health care…two is access, and three is affordability,” said Senator Welch. “The access issue is made worse by the One Big Beautiful Bill, and the cost side is made worse by the One Big Beautiful Bill, and it really hammers rural areas.” 

“This is brutal, and the hammer is coming down once these cuts go into place…Rural America is in great jeopardy as a result of this.” 

View photos from the event and watch Senator Welch’s remarks below: 

Senator Welch also discussed the importance of working across the aisle to achieve enduring bipartisan solutions that address fundamental challenges facing rural communities across the country: 

“I do believe—and I am a hawk on this—we have got to deal with the structural cost challenges in health care. And we should be working on that together. I’ve worked with folks like [Senator] Josh Hawley, I’ve worked with Senator Grassley on trying to deal with one element of that, and that’s the incredibly high prescription drug prices that we pay.” 

“These challenges that we face in our country—the quality of education, the impact of social media on the mental health and wellbeing of our children, the precarious state of health care in our community hospitals that are so essential to the wellbeing of rural community life—those are shared challenges. Republicans and Democrats. And it’s not something we should be looking for, those of us in Congress, to get some ‘partisan advantage’ of. We should be looking at them to solve a problem that helps your community and my community. We’ve got shared problems that all of us need to focus on. It’s why I continue to try to seek—in a very partisan world—a bipartisan approach, because what I’ve experienced in politics is that enduring accomplishments have to ultimately be bipartisan.” 

An estimated 45,000 Vermonters could lose their health coverage in the coming years as a result of Republicans’ and President Trump’s health care policies. The recently passed tax and spending bill, the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act, will cut more than $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid over ten years and could result in $1.7 billion in lost revenue for Vermont hospitals. If Republicans refuse to work with Democrats and extend discounted premiums on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, more than 26,000 Vermonters could lose access to care.  

Senator Welch voted in strong opposition against the legislation in July and led the introduction of the Repealing the Trump Sick Tax Act, a bill that would repeal changes to Medicaid cost-sharing requirements and handouts to Big Pharma in the Republicans’ reconciliation tax and spending bill. 

Senator Welch has championed initiatives to lower prescription drug prices and expand access to health care for Vermonters. This Congress, Senator Welch has led the introduction of several bills to make health care more accessible and affordable for Vermonters, including the 340B Pharmaceutical Access To Invest in Essential, Needed Treatments & Support (PATIENTS) Act, Eliminating Thickets to Improve Competition (ETHIC) Act, Maximizing Opioid Recovery Emergency (MORE) Savings Act, Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act, Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act, End Price Gouging for Medications Act, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act, Fair Funding for Rural Hospitals Act, and the Rural Hospital Support Act. 

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