Liz Saville Roberts: “We have a rural health care bill that is supported in a bipartisan effort on behalf of the Rural Health Care Coalition…”

“We have a rural health care bill that is supported in a bipartisan effort on behalf of the Rural Health Care Coalition; 146 Members now support this effort, so we can get the authorizing language. Last year, 309 hospitals all throughout our rural areas have applied for these grants. Sixty-five new grants were awarded. With the funding we have for these programs now, that is going to end. When we have Medicare reimbursement problems, when we have miles to go in regards to servicing our area, when we have major health care reform and managed care reform, this is the way we are going to transition. These are good programs. We need the funding if we possibly can. We simply ask for $20 million, when it was cut by $26 million. It is very evident to me that with 309 hospitals applying for these grants almost on an emergency basis, I have small communities in my district who have no primary health care, a community of 8,000, which, with a grant, then had the primary care for 3,000 of these residents. We will simply have no health care in many, many areas.”