On Friday, President Donald Trump celebrated the passage of his signature tax and spending bill into law.

At nearly 900 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. It will also reduce Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. That will result in an estimated 11.8 million people losing health insurance coverage. Among those who will be hardest hit? Rural Americans.

We discuss what kind of challenges people living in rural areas could face with the new law and what ripple effects the law could have across rural public health systems.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy