OPINION:
Much of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda is rooted in the blood, sweat and tears of rural America.
In our efforts to Make America Healthy Again, our agricultural industry is an integral partner.
Our farmers plant crops and stock grocery stores with fresh produce. Our cattle ranchers and poultry workers help feed American families. Rural America has a significant role in helping shield Americans from chronic disease and unhealthy foods.
And yet, health challenges threaten our reliance on its contributions.
Farmers work hard and long hours, at times under stressful conditions and often without much thanks. Their fitness and stamina are challenged as a result.
Communities in Appalachia, including those I represent, continue to reel from the devastating opioid epidemic.
Medical deserts in rural areas are growing.
Given these challenges, it would be a mistake for Congress to sit idly by. Because of this, I am helping lead the charge on ways to deliver meaningful health care solutions for rural America.
For example, in the Rural Health Transformation Program, Congress allocated $50 billion to support rural hospitals. We created this generational investment through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. The program will help modernize health care infrastructure, supplement health care services and expand access to care in rural America.
The program empowered states to develop comprehensive plans to support the program’s goals.
Right here in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin thoroughly considered a dozen rural communities when developing the Virginia plan, focusing on patient empowerment and preventative care to improve access, technology, and workforce development in rural Virginia.
The Rural Health Transformation Program is one part of the solution to provide financial support to our rural health care providers.
I am also focusing on strengthening community health centers (CHCs), which help address rural health care workforce shortages and fill gaps in our health system. CHCs play a critical role in delivering treatments and health care services in rural communities.
It is important that CHCs receive the assistance necessary for them to remain operational, which is why I was proud to support and see Congress recently pass a funding package which included health care extenders, part of which helps fund CHCs.
Rural America is home to scores of working families trying to make ends meet, and hours-long trips to receive health care won’t help pay the bills. The ongoing expansion of rural medical deserts also creates lasting health care dilemmas for these patients, who contemplate forgoing care just because seeing an in-person provider is too far. Telehealth is a helpful alternative to in-person care for many.
The government funding package that included CHC funding also extended telehealth reimbursement for two years.
I believe Congress must embrace a comprehensive strategy that promotes telehealth and provides certainty to providers and patients utilizing its services. Telehealth has not only reduced travel time and health care costs, but has also improved access to certain services, especially mental and behavioral health services.
Telehealth is also prevalent in the Rural Health Transformation Program, with states recognizing mobile units and virtual care as tools for supporting rural providers and patients.
Technological progress presents opportunity for telehealth to flourish as a 21st-century health care alternative. As we move to close the digital divide, we can also move to close the health care divide.
Taken together, these policies offer strong supports to rural health care well into the future. Much of America’s growing success hinges on rural America’s success.
And as a bedrock of the Trump coalition, we recognize that failing rural America is not an option.
• As representative for Virginia’s Ninth Congressional District, Rep. Morgan Griffith serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Health for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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