[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4175]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  OBAMACARE IDEOLOGY AND RURAL REALITY

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the importance 
of rural health care providers.
  Once again, we see President Obama standing on ideological grounds 
rather than actually taking the time to understand who provides medical 
care to seniors and how they do it. At the same time he is giving stump 
speeches and trying to convince us that ObamaCare is working, he is 
taking $422 billion out of Medicare.
  Now, part of these cuts come from critical access hospitals, and I am 
referring to the cuts that he is making to Medicare in his fiscal year 
2015 budget. It is similar to what he did each of the past 2 years. He 
targets the critical access hospitals. In order to pay for ObamaCare, 
he is proposing to cut Medicare payments to the providers who are 
providing such an important service--our rural health care providers.
  These patients have an extremely difficult time with access to 
medical care. They are poorer and are less likely to have employer-
provided insurance or prescription drug coverage.
  Critical access hospitals are the safety net for many Americans. They 
provide exceptional care. I see it in my district every day. I commend 
the rural providers.

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