HEALTH CARE

We are all aware of the health care crisis facing our Nation – seniors unable to afford their prescriptions, the cost of health insurance continuing to rise, and nearly 50 million Americans living without any health insurance. Far too often these hard-working Americans are only seeking medical care at a hospital emergency room when an illness has reached a near crisis level. For example, by waiting to seek medical care simple colds can become pneumonia. This delay and emergency room care is extremely costly and results in higher insurance premiums and prices for all.

Our rural communities are in an especially difficult situation when it comes to ensuring access to needed health care services. We must focus on reducing the cost of health insurance by improving medical information technology, helping small businesses provide health insurance, and improving existing programs like Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Medical Information Technology and Rural Health Care:

Providing the highest level of medical care in a mountainous and rural area like Western North Carolina can be a difficult task. Many residents do not have easy access to health care facilities close to their homes, and when a patient is transferred from one hospital to another it is difficult to fully transfer their complete medical records.

To address these difficulties, Western North Carolina has become a leader in the use of medical information technology. The Data Link program, which connects hospitals throughout our region electronically, allows doctors to share critical patient information. By improving the access to patient records, duplicate testing can be eliminated, better diagnoses can be made, care can be improved, and overall costs can be reduced.

I am proud to have secured funding for the continued expansion of the Data Link program in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill.

While ensuring that we are utilizing the latest medical technology, we must remember that the most important thing we can do to improve wellness is assure people access to a doctor. I have worked in the 110th Congress to ensure that rural residents have access to medical facilities and supported over $300 million in funding for rural health programs, area health education centers, and the National Health Service Corps through the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations bill. This funding will support vital programs at more than 1,200 small, at-risk rural hospitals; create health care networks for more than 775,000 rural residents; provide access to emergency defibrillation devices; and support rural health research centers and State rural health offices.

Medicare:

Medicare has proven to be an effective method of improving the health care for our senior citizens. Now, we must continue building on its legacy of success to ensure it continues to meet our needs in the 21st Century, while remaining financially stable.

At the beginning of the 110th Congress I supported H.R. 4, common sense legislation that would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices in the same way the Department of Veterans Affairs has done successfully for years. If signed into law this would help reduce the burden of rising prescription prices and save America’s seniors save thousands of dollars on their prescriptions.

Additionally, we must work to make certain that doctors and hospitals are receiving the proper reimbursements from Medicare, so that access to care does not decline. In December 2007 I supported legislation that postponed a scheduled 10.1% cut in Medicare payments for physicians and replaced it with a 0.5% increase. Unfortunately our doctors are facing a 10.6% cut in Medicare reimbursements effective July 1, 2008. The practice of providing only short-term fixes to the problem of Medicare reimbursement rates results in instability for Medicare patients and doctors. I am working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to enact long-term and meaningful reform that will stabilize the reimbursement system and protect our patients, doctors, and hospitals.

Need help with your Medicare benefits? Click here (link to Constituent Service help sheet)
State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP):

We have a solemn obligation to help care for the least among us. In 1997 Democrats and Republicans came together to do that and provide health care for the most vulnerable people in our Nation, our children, by creating the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Since its inception SCHIP has provided the health care needed to grow up healthy and strong for millions of American children whose parents are working, but cannot afford health insurance. Despite it success however, there are still millions of children in America living without health care. In North Carolina alone there are over 240,000 children living without health insurance.
I was proud to support efforts in the 110th Congress to reauthorize the SCHIP program. This reauthorization would protect the health care for the 6.6 million children currently enrolled in SCHIP, while also helping states enroll more children who are eligible for the program, but who are not currently enrolled.

Personal Commitment to Your Health:

A healthy life begins with a personal commitment to your health. By eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and using other preventive health care measures, the need for more intense, difficult, and costly medical treatments can be greatly reduced.

To learn more about a healthy and balanced diet, I encourage you to explore the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid. http://www.mypyramid.gov/

To learn more about getting in shape visit the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, click here.

Seniors interested in learning more about the preventive health care benefits offered by Medicare should visit www.mymedicare.gov.

Click HERE to download a PDF of Medicare’s Preventive Benefits Checklist. (pamphlet in medicare folder in filing cabinet)

For Kids:

Learn what foods you should eat to grow up healthy and strong by clicking here.

Learn why exercise is so important to being healthy by clicking here.

PHOTO GALLERY

Congressman Shuler chairs a hearing in the Small Business Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship

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