Rural Health Resilience Act of 2026

Loans to Save Rural Health Clinics

If enacted, this bill would create a Rural Health Care Facility Stabilization Assistance Program. The Secretary of Agriculture would be able to make loans and loan guarantees to keep rural clinics and hospitals open or to restore essential services. Eligible facilities would need to be in rural areas or serve largely rural patients (tests include a hospital whose patients are at least 60% rural or a center with at least 30% rural patients) and show financial distress (for example, operating margin under 5%, low cash reserves, or risk of service loss). "Health center" would be defined broadly to include many rural hospitals, critical access hospitals, rural health clinics, Federally qualified health centers, community mental health centers, opioid treatment programs, certified community behavioral health clinics, and similar entities. Loan money could pay for buildings, equipment, operating costs (no bonuses), debt payments, working capital, maintaining essential service lines, bridging reimbursement timing gaps, refinancing high-interest patient-care debt, and other Secretary-authorized activities. The Secretary could prioritize sole community providers, providers in high-poverty areas (20%+ areawide poverty rate), shortage areas, and hospitals providing critical emergency and safety-net services. Within 18 months after enactment the Secretary would report program activities and outcomes to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and publish a public summary without personal or financial details about any health center. The program would use an existing legal test for what counts as a rural area and let the Secretary designate additional areas as rural for the program.