Pennsylvania’s rural communities are suffering from a healthcare provider shortage that has reached crisis proportions.

As a new analysis by the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute documents, over half of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties have partial or severe shortages of primary care providers.

More than 30 of the state’s rural hospitals have shuttered or reduced services over the past two decades, leaving entire communities stranded.

The challenges existed even before the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” became law in July.

But the legislation’s spending cuts will carve out even larger healthcare voids in rural areas. Pennsylvania faces particularly steep consequences — the eighth hardest hit state with Medicaid expenditures projected to be slashed by $5.5 billion over the next 10 years, accelerating further cutbacks and closures.

The more than 330,000 Pennsylvanian veterans who are enrolled in the VA healthcare system have been largely sheltered from these realities.

Though they may drive long distances or wait several weeks for an appointment, they benefit from a system dedicated to their complex mental and medical care conditions — one that, studies document, serves them better than the private sector.

Recent “Government Efficiency” chain-sawing of VA staffing and funding have jeopardized all this. And now newly introduced legislation, the Critical Access for Veterans Care Act, could make it even more difficult for many Pennsylvania veterans to get needed care.

The bill would allow veterans living within 35 miles of federally designated Critical Access Hospitals to bypass VA care entirely, self-referring to private facilities.

While, on paper, this sounds like vets in Pennsylvania will have more healthcare choices, in actuality, they will wind up with fewer.

Locally, it could be disastrous. The VA has a full-service medical facility in Altoona.

Under the bill’s proposal, care for many of the 26,000 veterans it serves would migrate to two nearby Critical Access Hospitals: Conemaugh Miners Medical Center in Hastings and Penn Highlands Healthcare in Tyrone.

The damage wouldn’t stop there. The State College VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic would also watch its patient population flow away.

Here’s why: When veterans shift care, VA funding follows them out the door.

As patient volumes drop, VA facilities face budget cuts, forcing reductions or elimination of specialized VA programs and units that veterans desperately need.

Where will veterans who rely on the VA go when services fade? Local statistics paint a bleak picture of the inability to absorb thousands of additional veteran patients.

All of Blair County is classified as a “mental health professional shortage area.”

Large swaths of the county are designated as a “primary care health professional shortage area.”

Veterans depend on the VA’s integrated and specialized services, which are often unavailable in the private sector. Rather than undermining VA options, Congress should focus on strengthening and expanding these vital services.

This means increasing telehealth capabilities and fully funding VA facilities.

With proper support, the VA system can be a stabilizing force in Pennsylvania’s rural healthcare wilderness.

Russell Lemle is a Senior Policy Analyst for the non-profit, non-partisan Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.