Thomas Daschle: “today, with Senator Baucus, I introduce a bill intended to improve health care for Americans living in rural…”

“today, with Senator Baucus, I introduce a bill intended to improve health care for Americans living in rural communities. The Promoting Health in Rural Areas Act of 1998 would help rural communities attract and retain health care providers and health plans, improve the viability of sole community hospitals, and make optimal use of the advances in medical technology available today. Delivering health care in rural America presents unique challenges-- issues related to geography, lack of transportation, and reimbursement. With a relatively small population spread over a large area, and health care professionals in short supply, patients often must travel long distances to see a physician or get to a hospital. While these rural communities strive to improve access through telemedicine and recruitment efforts, they must also struggle to maintain what they have, to ensure that providers who leave their area are replaced, and to keep their hospitals' doors open. Rural communities have long had great difficulty recruiting and retaining health care providers to serve their needs. Despite great increases in the number of providers trained in this country over the past 30 years, rural communities have not shared equitably in the benefits of this expansion. Even though 20 percent of Americans live in non-metropolitan counties, only 11 percent of physicians practice in those counties, and that percentage has been falling for the last 25 years.”