By Anna Krejci
News-Chronicle
PULASKI - Health care for rural America factored into the presidential race as a U.S. senator from Iowa stumping on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry spoke to an intimate gathering of about 25 Kerry-Edwards supporters at the Pulaski Polka Grounds on Saturday.
Sen. Tom Harkin outlined Kerry's steps toward improving health care for rural Americans, the majority of them in keeping with the Kerry's health care plan for all Americans.
The goal of the Kerry-Edwards plan is to make health care more accessible and more affordable to families living in rural areas.
"As someone who lives in a town of 150 people, believe me, I know what that means for rural America," said Harkin, who grew up in Cumming, Iowa.
"We don't have to accept rural health care the way it is now," he added.
Harkin said rural Americans earn $11,000 less per year than their urban counterparts and pay $140 more per year for prescription drugs. He said private insurers are scarce and premiums are higher in rural areas.
Kerry would double the size of the National Health Service Corps and National Nurse Service Corps to bring health care professionals to areas in need. The programs encourage health care professionals to work in shortage areas in exchange for reduced school loans. In addition, more health care centers would be established in rural areas.
Likewise, President Bush calls for improved health care services in rural areas. By 2006, Bush wants to serve an additional 6.1 million people at 1,200 health center sites, according to his campaign. Megan Hauck, deputy policy director for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said the president has reached half of the goal so far. He also wants to make available Association Health Plans for organizations besides employers, such as civic groups.
Other parts of Kerry's plan include granting tax credits to small businesses - which Harkin said are more prevalent in rural America - providing everyone with access to the federal employees health benefit program, permitting the government to bargain for cheaper Medicare prescription drugs and canceling the ban on drug reimportation from Canada.
Harkin said the Kerry-Edwards plan would cost $653 billion over 10 years. Americans earning $200,000 per year or more would pay for the plan through reduced tax cuts, Harkin said. The additional tax dollars from high-income earners would amount to $850 billion; $200 billion would be spent on education and other programs.
Hauck of the Bush-Cheney campaign argued that the tax dollars from wealthier Americans would never be able to support the Kerry-Edwards health care plan. She cited two firms - American Enterprise Institute and The Lewin Group - that said the Kerry-Edwards health care plan will cost more than $1 trillion, not $650 billion. Hauck also said by reducing tax cuts for Americans with incomes of $200,000 or more, Kerry would be taxing small businesses that pay individual income tax rates.
The opening and expansion of health centers under Bush's Community Health Center Initiatives is being funded through federal grants. Hauck said a $25 billion package in the president's Medicare Bill is meant to support health care services, including ambulance providers, nurses and doctors.
Despite the progress the president is said to have made in opening or expanding 600 health care centers so far, Jaime Aguilar a Green Bay Kerry-Edwards supporter, said he does not see how the Bush administration has improved health care for rural America, an issue that even affects city dwellers, he said.
"We're talking about farmers, rangers," he said, "they produce the necessity - food, milk," he said.
With agriculture such a vital part of the economy, rural health-care issues are critical, Aguilar said.
"Especially here in Wisconsin, the rural area economy, the products, what they produce, is what keeps our state strong economically," he said. Harkin campaigned on behalf of Kerry in Mosinee and Superior on Saturday.
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