LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – Michigan House Republicans are pushing back against the state Department of Health and Human Services over how it plans to distribute more than $173 million in federal rural health care funding, arguing the eligibility rules could allow the state’s most populous counties to compete with communities that face severe shortages in medical services.
The funding comes from the federal Rural Health Transformation program, a $50 billion initiative created by Congress following Medicaid cuts included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. MDHHS serves as a pass-through agency for the grants, which must be awarded and distributed by December.
Republicans argue the department’s use of “partially rural” classifications, which include counties such as Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb, undermines the intent of the program.
“The fact that they are shoveling rural health care funding into those counties when the northern counties and the Upper Peninsula are a health care desert is just unforgivable,” said Rep. Dave Prestin, R–Cedar River.
Prestin and other GOP lawmakers say residents in Northern Michigan and the U.P. often travel an hour or more for basic care, while downstate counties retain access to major hospital systems and specialty providers.
“Just because they have some farmers doesn’t change the fact that they have access to 100 times the amount of facilities and networks that we do up here,” Prestin said.
Republicans also fault MDHHS for failing to secure a larger share of the federal funding, saying Michigan ranked near the bottom nationally in access to the program.
State health officials dispute that characterization, saying the rural definitions mirror those used by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy within the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
MDHHS said they plan to weigh population alongside other factors such as geographic isolation, chronic disease prevalence, and access to care.
In a statement, MDHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said the department anticipates prioritizing counties with high Medicaid dependence, aging populations, child poverty and limited access to health care facilities.
Republicans say without a stronger focus on proximity to care, the state risks repeating what they describe as a long-standing pattern of leaving Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula behind.
