Introduction of the Health Care Access and Rural Equity Act

Prepared Remarks of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance
Introduction of the Health Care Access and Rural Equity Act

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, I'm pleased to stand up today in support of the Health Care Access and Rural Equity Act.

This legislation comes at a critical time for rural hospitals. In Iowa and across the country, hospitals are struggling to keep their doors open. Medicare's unfair payment policies aren't helping.

In fact, Medicare actually penalizes rural hospitals by paying lower rates than their urban counterparts, sometimes for the very same service. This is wrong, and this legislation takes a step in the right direction to correct the inequity. The H-CARE Act builds on legislation I introduced last year with Senator Baucus. That bill (S. 3018) would have provided increased reimbursement for rural health care providers. If we had been able to enact that legislation, it would have helped greatly to reduce Medicare's current reimbursement inequities.

Though our bill wasn't considered last year, we've taken some significant steps to address rural hospital reimbursement already this year. In February, the President signed into law my provision in the Omnibus Appropriations bill that would equalize the base payment rate for rural and small urban hospitals with their urban counterparts. That provision alone will provide over $7 million for hospitals in Iowa. The H-CARE Act would make this provision permanent. And, overall, this bill would infuse $368 million over the next ten years for Iowa's hospitals. That's real money to address real problems.

On the Senate Finance Committee, we will be considering Medicare legislation over the next few months. In fact, next Monday, the committee will convene a field hearing in Des Moines on fixing reimbursement formulas that hurt low-cost, high-quality states like Iowa.

Meanwhile, the Senate budget set aside $400 billion over ten years for Medicare prescription drugs and health care providers. I worked with Sen. Feingold to make sure there is language in the budget that says some of this money must be used to gain equity for rural states. Clearly, the ideas promoted in H-CARE and others will be used to develop the strongest possible rural component to the Medicare prescription drug legislation that I plan to move through the Finance Committee in the months ahead.