Rural issues have always been important to my family and me. I grew up on a dairy farm in southeastern Pennsylvania and I have seen firsthand the contributions people who live in rural areas make to our country. While they do not work the most glamorous jobs, the farmers and ranchers in every state are the proud backbone of the country and work very hard to ensure that there is food on the table for their fellow Americans. I have proudly been a member of the Grange for my entire life and I now have the privilege of representing rural America as the National President of the Grange.
For 150 years, the National Grange has worked to help solve the problems that our members face in their local communities – making sure that rural America has access to education, healthcare and infrastructure that is found in urban areas and championing civic participation, energy independence and trade policy that supports rural agriculture. As the new Congress looks to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, our job is to ensure the debate includes the current challenges around access to healthcare in rural communities and any new policy ensures we are taking steps toward solving these issues not making them worse.
Repealing the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare" could severely damage the principal healthcare institutions of many rural communities — the local hospitals.
But there is a way to repeal the law that will not further endanger our local healthcare institutions. When Obamacare was passed in 2009, the federal government significantly cut Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals in favor of funding insurance coverage for uninsured patients. Should Congress proceed with repeal of the ACA, we must ensure the legislation includes the restoration of these reimbursements.
Rural Americans are statistically older and more likely to be a part of the nearly 50 million Medicare beneficiaries, making Medicare, and also Medicaid, functionality and preservation essential for rural residents.
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05.05.2024