News from rural America.

Economic challenges roil America’s farmers, slashed Medicaid is hitting some states harder than others, Washington has joined a lawsuit fighting federal cuts to school-based mental health grants and libraries help families reduce the high cost of living.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

Access to mental health care is dwindling for rural Americans due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

At the Oregon-Idaho line, how bad it gets depends on which side of the border you're on.

The 2025 Republican legislation slashed low-income programs like Medicaid and children's health insurance.

Becky Wollery with Insight Matters, a clinic near the border, says lots of their patients are losing coverage.

If people aren't going to providers to get their mental health needs met, they're going to end up in the hospitals.

They're going to end up in crisis.

Oregon is the state expecting the greatest drop in Medicaid enrollment.

Idaho already had limited state-sponsored services, so it won't experience dramatic cuts.

Still, Weezer-Idaho social worker April Brown says mental health funding has always been a roller coaster.

So many different years, things were good and things were cut.

You just kind of have to learn to adjust to be able to meet people where their needs are.

As of April, more than one and a half million Americans lost Medicaid.

Another 13 million can expect to over the next three years.

Meanwhile, neighboring Washington is leading a 15-state coalition suing the Trump administration for ending a billion dollars in congressionally approved mental health grants for schools.

Lauren Mendez with the Washington School Counselor Association says many students in rural and high-need school districts rely on school-based mental health care.

How are we supporting our students to achieve their dreams, to have the resources they need when situations feel unsafe or uncomfortable?

The administration argues the program conflicts with its policy of prioritizing merit and fairness in education.

The Iowa Farm Bureau says tough times for producers could last for years and advises farmers to pinch pennies, control what they can, and rely on proven strategies to survive the downturn.

Farmer Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, says options are limited.

It means that piece of equipment that you would normally swap out, you put off that purchase.

The soil inputs that you use, you cut back them.

Lehman says input costs and low prices cut net farm income more than 50% between 2022 and 2024.

Now tariffs are causing instability.

We have a chaotic policy that says we're going to drop a tariff for this reason or for that reason.

And there's really no logic to it.

If America's economic downturn has you looking to trim expenses, try your local library.

Beth Cook with Cheyenne, Wyoming's library says they have endless free options.

E-books, e-audiobooks, movies, TV episodes, music, all that can be streamed with a library card.

Many libraries now lend tools like chainsaws and sewing machines and have public 3D printers.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com. you