National Rural Health Association Congressman Jim Nussle today was honored by the National Rural Health Association, which presented him its National Rural Health 1998 Legislative Award in recognition of his leadership on rural health issues. Nussle, who is co-chairman of the House Rural Health Care Coalition, said access to health care continues to be the top priority in Iowa and every rural area of this country. During a speech to the 1999 Rural Health Policy Institute Monday, Nussle recalled a New Jersey newspaper last year reported how a local controversy erupted after an ambulance took almost 11 minutes before arriving at the scene of an emergency. If a hospital closes in a town the size of Manchester, we're done.
Economic development is done.
You don't get a lot of companies looking to move to your town when they have to ask how long it takes to get to the doctor, or how long it takes to get to the Ob-Gyn. He also suggested reforms are needed in the Graduate Medical Education system to produce more primary care physicians and encourage them to practice in rural areas. Nussle said Congress can protect the health care infrastructure of rural America by allowing EMS units to issue tax exempt bonds for revenue purposes. Nussle also pointed to two of his own bills that he reintroduced last week, including one that would stop penalizing rural hospitals for moving patients to home and other intermediate care, and another that would continue the fight to close the wide gap between Medicare reimbursements to rural and urban health care providers. Nussle noted the House Rural Health Care Coalition currently has 125 members, compared with the 140-plus membership during the last Congress.