'We Realized There Was A Hole': Rulli Touts GOP's Rural Healthcare Funding Revisions, Defends BBB

5 months ago

During a House Energy Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) spoke about proposed legislation to improve rural health access.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Rulli, for five minutes.

00:05Well, it's good to see Ohio in the house, so God bless you, sir.

00:08I just want to take a second, and I want to thank Mr. Morris for all your hard work at HRSA.

00:14It means the world to us. We appreciate it.

00:16I'm proud to join as an original co-sponsor to Chair Carter's bipartisan HR 2493,

00:23the Improving Care in Rural America Reauthorization Act.

00:27It extends grants and helps rural residents who have trouble accessing health care.

00:32And I think this is a really interesting bill for myself because I think this is one of the first times

00:38that I've actually seen on the Hill versus the Statehouse years that I did

00:43where we have bipartisan support for a cause.

00:46So I think it's really reassuring and refreshing to see such a bipartisan approach to this problem,

00:52and it is a problem.

00:53I'm going to give two quick examples of personal tragedies that I've seen within my district in the last year.

01:01Directly north of my district in Warren, Ohio, was a hospital called Trumbull Memorial Hospital

01:06where actually my son was born.

01:08This hospital got gutted by Steward Health out of Boston, Massachusetts

01:12for some shenanigans they were doing within their financing of the actual hospital.

01:17The hospital closed, so the biggest ER within a 45 to 50-mile radius was shut down.

01:23The problem is with that, when you live in northern Trumbull County or southern Ashtubula, Ohio,

01:28which is all in the eastern part of Ohio,

01:31you would now have to go to the Cleveland Clinic or University Hospital within the city limits of Cleveland,

01:36or you'd have to drive down to Youngstown or Pittsburgh.

01:39Some of these areas are an hour away,

01:41so if you're having a heart attack or a stroke or another medical emergency,

01:45there will not be logistic times to get you to that ER.

01:48These are the kind of problems that we're dealing with with rural hospitals.

01:52Besides that, another example is down in Marietta, Ohio,

01:55which is the very southern part of my district,

01:57almost a four-hour drive from Trumbull County.

02:00These are examples of the problem within rural America that we're facing,

02:03that both parties can go across party lines,

02:06and we can join hands together and fix these problems.

02:08In Marietta, they realized that there wasn't a possibility of them having a children's hospital

02:13unless you went to Nationwide, which is in the city of Columbus.

02:17That's two and a half hours away.

02:18In order to get you into Pittsburgh for another emergency is an hour and a half away.

02:22People will die.

02:24There is a major problem in this country with rural hospitals that we have to fix,

02:29and it is something that every elected official is brought onto the Hill to try to do.

02:33The reauthorization funds program that provides insulin and blood pressure medications,

02:40strengthens telehealth, and telehealth is going to be incorporated

02:43with all this broadband work that we're doing

02:45because we have to give them the tools to actually make telehealth work,

02:49and also manage just chronic diseases.

02:52Health outcomes should never depend on someone's zip code.

02:55I think that is atrocious in a country that is the epicenter of the world

03:00that we have problems just because we have poor rural America that does not have access.

03:05On the heels of the big, beautiful, historical bill,

03:08contrary to popular belief, there was $50 billion investment in rural health care.

03:13This is what happens when you get to the finish line of any piece of legislation,

03:16and the two parties and everyone starts working together.

03:19We realize that there was a hole with the rural hospitals,

03:21and we got $50 billion in investment in rural health care,

03:25which will have a profound impact.

03:27I'm very happy to support this legislation.

03:30I'm happy to go across the aisles,

03:32and with that, I yield my time to the chair.

'We Realized There Was A Hole': Rulli Touts GOP's Rural Healthcare Funding Revisions, Defends BBB

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