Max Baucus: “Congress has its hands full with health policy issues this year, ranging from health insurance for workers displaced by…”

“Congress has its hands full with health policy issues this year, ranging from health insurance for workers displaced by trade policies, to the Patients' Bill of Rights, to Medicare prescription drugs. All of these issues are pressing. But Congress must not lose sight of another pressing issue in health policy: supporting patients in rural America and the health care providers who care for them. Under current law, rural areas are confronted with a series of inequities in Medicare payment policy. Few of these inequities have any basis in sound policy; and all of them take away precious resources from rural communities. Today, I am introducing legislation to level the rural playing field. The Revitalizing Underserved Rural Areas and Localities Act, the RURAL Act, would fix many of the inequities that exist under the current system and offer extra help to certain providers who struggle to operate in a rural, low-volume environment.”