[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1452]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 BETTERING RURAL HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

  (Mr. McINTYRE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McINTYRE. Mr. Speaker, as cochairman of the Rural Health Care 
Coalition, I want to thank my good friend and the former cochairman, 
the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle), for all of his hard work on 
behalf of rural health care. His leadership will be missed, but I am 
sure my colleagues will join me in representing the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Moran) as cochairman of our Rural Health Care Coalition.
  Just 2 days ago, I had the opportunity to visit Cape Fear Valley 
Medical Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, along with Senator John 
Edwards from North Carolina, to talk about the impact that the Balanced 
Budget Act of 1997 has had on the quality of care. While I am pleased 
that those of us in Congress have taken significant steps over the last 
2 years to stop cuts in Medicare, we have much more to do to ensure 
that all citizens, no matter where they live in America, have access to 
quality health care.
  The voice of rural America needs to be heard and to be heard loudly 
in these halls of Congress. I encourage all of my colleagues here in 
the Congress to join our efforts to make sure that, as we talk about 
and work to improve health care, that we are improving it for all 
Americans everywhere, so that no one is left behind.

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