Alaska will get $272 million from the federal government in 2026 to upgrade its rural health system, officials announced on Dec. 29. The money comes from the Rural Health Transformation Program, a new five-year fund meant to allow rural areas to tailor health care systems to their specific needs.
At a news conference in Anchorage, United States Sen. Dan Sullivan said the program has the potential to reshape Alaska’s health care system in a way that benefits everybody.
“The federal government is providing the funding so that we can design a program that actually meets and reflects our unique challenges,” Sullivan said, speaking alongside Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and Alaska Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg.
Every U.S. state will receive at least $145 million next year through the transformation fund, but Alaska will get more money than anywhere except for Texas — and far more per person, roughly $365 per Alaskan. If Alaska gets a similar amount in subsequent years, it will receive $1.36 billion total by 2031.
“It's certainly the biggest investment from the federal government to Alaska's health care system in our state's history,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the money will be used to strengthen rural clinics, stabilize health care workforces, and help keep care closer to home, reducing the need for costly and disruptive travel.
The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program was authorized as part of the Republican-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which also included new requirements for Medicaid access. The money comes after the state lost millions in public health funding, and as federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are set to end.
Sullivan drew a distinction between the ACA subsidies and the Rural Health Transformation Program.
“That issue is kind of an issue of access to insurance,” Sullivan said. “This issue, the announcement today, which I think is an unmitigated good for our state, for everybody, is about access to health care, particularly in a big, rural state like ours.”
Phil Hofstetter is CEO of Petersburg Medical Center in Southeast Alaska and has been working in health care in rural Alaska for decades. He said in an interview that the new funding could have huge impacts on much-needed changes to the state’s health care system, as long as regulations and bureaucracy don’t get in the way.
“In rural areas we know how to use those funds. We know what challenges arise in our locations, and those might be different in different locations,” Hofstetter said. “So I feel like if we're not allowed to use those funds specifically to meet the needs of our communities, that could be a potential failure point.”
But Hofstetter said he is cautiously optimistic about the transformation program.
Alaska Department of Health Commissioner Hedberg said the state will share more details in coming weeks about how hospitals, community-based organizations, and federally qualified health centers can access the funds.
