Chuck Grassley: “I put before you not a tax amendment, but I am addressing a funding crisis that affects rural America. I am talking…”

“I put before you not a tax amendment, but I am addressing a funding crisis that affects rural America. I am talking about the issue of Medicare. We have heard a lot about relief to States and about Medicaid during this debate, and legitimately so. But there has been no discussion of the role Medicare plays in keeping our health care infrastructure strong in rural States like mine. Today, our rural health infrastructure is falling apart. Hospitals and home health agencies in rural areas lose money on every Medicare patient they see. Services are being slashed and staff are being cut, all to make ends meet and keep the facility open--but not to keep it open with the quality of care that ought to be there, or to meet necessarily all the needs of the community. Medicare formulas penalize rural physicians in 30 States by reducing their payments below those of their urban counterparts for the very same service. Small physician clinics, and especially solo practitioners, who are facing rising malpractice premiums on top of the Medicare formula inequities are on the verge of closing up shop. My amendment takes important steps toward correcting geographic disparities that penalize rural health care providers.”