(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

“The program tackles the root causes of rural health care failure. It gives states the tools to design solutions that last, not Band-Aids that fail.”

That was Dr. Mehmet Oz, on the speedily unrolled Rural Health Transformation Program that will make available $50 billion — a possible $10 billion per year to states — each fiscal year from 2026 through 2030. Four years of potential federal funding, half of which is to be distributed evenly to all 50 states IF they apply for it; and half to be distributed based on health care metrics.

Federal officials have given states until Nov. 5 (yes, about seven weeks from now) to come up with what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he hopes will be “bold, audacious proposal ideas as strong as the people (governors) serve,” to get some of the money to improve rural health care outcomes for their residents.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey is right to have a sense of urgency.

“This is coming really, really fast, but we’re going to be working hard to get this together,” he said Tuesday. “We want to have a transformative impact on rural health care outcomes in the state.”

Bear in mind, according to a report by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, nearly one-quarter of West Virginia’s hospitals are at risk of closure — some of them at immediate risk, mainly due to financial issues.

Morrisey is also correct that EVERY county in West Virginia is rural, to one degree or another. Report after report shows Mountain State residents have as great or greater a need for access to quality medical care as those in any other state. But we’ve been given another hoop to jump through to get it.

King Bureaucracy exists to serve (and enlarge) itself no matter who is in charge or at what level. And so now, Morrisey and healthcare stakeholders across the state find themselves in the position of having to put in difficult work to quickly agree on how to put together an application for funding that will be rewarded with the kind of support West Virginia deserves.

It’s possible, but all involved will have to immediately decide to focus on what matters — and leave what they know perfectly well are politically motivated and distracting discussions to the side.

If Morrisey is as determined as he says he is to get this funding, good.

Let’s get this done.