Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to discuss a bill I am introducing, the Rural Emergency Acute Care Hospital Act, or REACH Act. Since January 2010, 55 rural hospitals have closed their doors. It is even more troubling that the pace of rural hospital closures appears to be accelerating. As you can see from this chart, the number of hospital closures has increased each year over the past 5 years. These closures are creating a health care crisis for hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country. The REACH Act will create a new rural hospital model under Medicare that will enable struggling rural hospitals to keep their doors open and maintain the most critical hospital service: emergency medicine. When a rural hospital closes, the community loses the lifesaving capabilities of the emergency room. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 60 percent of trauma deaths in the United States occur in rural areas. After a traumatic event, access to an emergency room within 1 hour can make a big difference between life and death. Take, for example, Portia Gibbs from North Carolina. At 48, Portia suffered a heart attack 75 miles from the nearest emergency room. She later died while waiting for a helicopter to arrive that would have taken her over the State line to Virginia, where the closest hospital was located.…”