[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH DAY

  (Mr. SMITH of Nebraska asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the fifth 
annual National Rural Health Day. The third Thursday in November is set 
aside each year by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural 
Health to recognize the unique healthcare needs of and challenges 
facing rural Americans and their communities.
  These challenges include fewer healthcare providers and longer travel 
distances. The hospitals serving rural communities continue to be 
burdened by arbitrary regulations such as physician supervision 
regulations as well as the 96-hour certification rules which we 
certainly need to address.
  Mr. Speaker, this year, rural consumers in 12 States also face the 
challenge of finding a new insurance plan because the so-called 
Consumer Oriented and Operated Plan, or CO-OP, created by ObamaCare, 
from which they purchase coverage, has failed. This includes 120,000 
Nebraskans and Iowans who bought coverage through CoOportunity Health.
  Mr. Speaker, consumers and taxpayers deserve to know what went wrong 
with the CO-OPs and whether the $2.4 billion in Federal loans to this 
failing program will be repaid. I will continue to fight for these 
answers.

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