Good quality, affordable health care shouldn’t depend on your zip code

The challenges of finding good quality, affordable health care is a topic I hear about everywhere I go in my district in Pennsylvania. As a member of the bipartisan Rural Health Caucus, I’m constantly working to find ways to expand and protect access to care for all members of our community—because your health care shouldn’t depend on where you live. It’s an issue that matters to Democrats, and that matters to Republicans. And it’s a problem we need to work together to solve.

There are approximately 60 million people living in rural communities across the United States, including over a third of Pennsylvania. Across my district, access to health care in the rural parts is a recurring challenge, although I am pleased to see the expansion of two of our hospital networks in the more rural areas. These communities are experiencing shortages of health care providers—in fact, 26 percent of rural Pennsylvanians live in a federally designated health professional shortage area. Making the situation more difficult, 30 percent of physicians currently practicing in rural areas intend to leave the workforce in the next five years. This is a huge issue for access to preventive care, which is critical to overall health and well-being.

Therefore, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and I are pushing to pass our bill, the bipartisan Equity for Rural Teaching Hospitals Act. The bill would update the calculations used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to make sure that rural teaching hospitals receive higher, fairer reimbursement for the work they do in training the next generation of rural physicians – Work that is critical in combating the shortage of health care providers in our communities.

Ensuring that our rural hospitals receive the funding they need is key to attracting, training and retaining talented health care professionals to every community, so that people who need quality and affordable health care can find it, no matter where they live.

In addition to making sure that rural areas have the providers to serve them, we need to prevent discrimination against hospitals and clinics that participate in the 340B drug pricing program, which many rural communities depend on for lower prescription drug prices. Under no circumstances should pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies be allowed to undermine affordable savings for American families – which is why I support the bipartisan PROTECT 340B Act that would block them from undermining patients’ choices.

Furthermore, at a time when health care is increasingly happening outside of hospitals​​​​​​​​​​ and doctors’ offices, we must expand access to affordable high-speed Internet. Telehealth appointments offer flexibility and convenience that is attractive to many patients – but these appointments require a reliable internet connection, something our rural areas often lack access to. The Affordable Connectivity Program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act is getting to work to address this problem by providing broadband subsidies to more than 36,000 households in Pennsylvania’s 7th District, as the $1.2 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Act money comes to our commonwealth to fund broadband infrastructure. . I am advocating to make sure every corner of my district sees the investments in high-speed Internet, and I am continuing the push to make Internet access affordable for all Pennsylvania families so that telehealth services are also accessible.

I believe that health care is a human right, and that every single person deserves access to good-quality, affordable health care—no matter their zip code. I will always continue the fight to ensure that my community, and every community, can see a doctor, afford their medications and feel the peace of mind that quality health care brings. No one deserves less.

Susan Wild represents Pennsylvania’s 7th District.