“I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me. And I’m afraid that’s something I can’t allow to happen,” HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
From my experience as nurse, nurse robots sound like something else to be responsible for and worry about. The highest stress jobs are those with most of the responsibility without the least authority. Nursing should be number one on that list.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team want to Make Rural America Healthy again.
“He has suggested that AI nurses could save dying rural hospitals. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said robots could perform ultrasounds on women and touted how AI avatars could help. And President Donald Trump’s administration is infusing $50 billion over five years to improve rural health, with some states proposing to use the money for drones to deliver lab samples or prescriptions”.
Rural health care has struggled for years with limited budgets, not enough staff, and difficulty reaching patients in remote places. Many rural health providers worry that the new promises are being exaggerated.
They also argue that the administration’s one-time $50 billion for innovation will not make up for the estimated $137 billion in Medicaid funding that rural areas are expected to lose over the next decade because of cuts from what Trump called the “big, beautiful bill,” according to KFF.
In the past 20 years, nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed or reduced their services. (U.S. rural hospitals - Statistics & Facts, 2025) This has happened as more patients are uninsured or depend on Medicare and Medicaid, which pay less than private insurance. (Medicaid Coverage Supports Rural Patients, Hospitals, and Communities, 2026) The challenges are significant, said George Pink, a senior research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“There’s a healthy amount of skepticism and caution,” Pink said of the CMS infusion, noting also “there’s optimism that the money will be helpful in transitioning, or in helping rural hospitals meet the challenges that they’re going to be facing over the next few years.”
CMS vowed that the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation fund would close access gaps. “The goal is not fewer services, rather more sustainable rural healthcare,” the agency said. What? More Orwellian speak?
Although the AI nurses Kennedy discussed are not yet real, some states are exploring how new technology could improve rural health care.
North Dakota plans to use federal money to buy drones for the quick delivery of supplies and lab samples. Massachusetts wants to use AI systems to help bring care to people in remote areas. In Texas, officials hope to make fax processing faster by using more AI automation.
Fax processing? Are there still fax machines somewhere?
Why not just save money by cutting the health insurance industry out of healthcare and implementing a single-payer universal healthcare system? Then take the savings and HIRE MORE NURSES! Pay nurses what they’re worth and make nursing education free.
References
The Washington Post. “RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz have a plan to save rural healthcare. Here’s the catch. Lauren Weber, 3/24/2026”.
(2025). U.S. rural hospitals - Statistics & amp; Facts. Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/13552/rural-hospitals-in-the-us/
(2026). Medicaid Coverage Supports Rural Patients, Hospitals, and Communities. American Hospital Association. https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2025-06-05-medicaid-coverage-supports-rural-patients-hospitals-and-communities
The current situation post the big ugly bill passage regarding health care in general goes to show how far out of touch Kennedy’s administration is with reality. While rural communities have always struggled to secure the resources to operate optimally, rural healthcare wasn’t broken; now it is, and that, on its own, should be telling Sec Kennedy he screwed up and reverse course. Unfortunately, until 2028, the current administration is incapable of self-realization that they have done something wrong.