Sen. Hawley proposes millions in funding for rural emergency rooms

Hospitals in rural states may receive millions in supplemental funding over the next decade to help keep emergency room operations running if Congress passes a recently proposed bipartisan bill.

“Every senator should be for this,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who sponsored the bill, said at a press conference Wednesday.

“There’s nothing political about it, there’s nothing controversial about it,” he continued. “There’s no hidden agenda here. It’s just about keeping emergency rooms open. Whatever else you think about health care in America, surely, we can agree on that.”

The Rural Hospital Emergency Room Guarantee Act, co-sponsored by Hawley and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, would provide an annual baseline sum of $1 million to rural hospitals specifically to support emergency room operations for the next decade.

“We want every hospital in the state of Missouri, and in America, to get every dollar that they can that will help them keep their doors open,” Hawley said.

Nearly 200 rural hospitals have closed nationwide since 2005, and nearly 20% of Missouri’s rural hospitals are losing money and are at risk of immediate closure, according to Hawley’s press release. In addition to the annual $1 million fund, Hawley’s bill would offer one-time emergency payments of up to $250,000 to any rural hospital in danger of impending closure, according to the release.

The average distance to a hospital for a Missourian is 30 miles, Hawley said, emphasizing how far those miles become in an emergency.

“When seconds matter, essential care can be hours away. This legislation helps make sure that rural Missourians don’t have to face that reality,” Dr. Aaron Neisen, who serves in an emergency room at Scotland County Hospital in Memphis, Missouri, said at the press briefing.

Rural Americans love their land and culture and want to preserve the heartland but still need health care within a reasonable distance, nurse Laura Smith, CEO of Elliot Memorial Hospital in Appleton City, Missouri, said at the briefing. While the distance to a hospital for many Americans is already concerning, this bill ensures more hospitals won’t close and increase the miles and time during a crisis.

“In an emergency, every minute can feel like an hour. As more rural hospitals close their doors, Americans living in rural communities have to drive further and further to get care in a crisis,” Sen. Hassan said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation provides federal funding directly to rural emergency rooms, helping them keep their doors open and also preserving these lifelines for millions of Americans living in rural communities nationwide.”

Hawley clarified that the funds won’t support corporate faculty but will instead fund the very people who see the crises: the doctors and nurses providing critical care in emergency rooms.

“It’s not controversial. It’s a great idea. It’s a way that this government can respect its citizens by taking care of people who take care of people,” John Doolittle, president of the Missouri Hospital Association, said at the press conference.

Hawley thanked the doctors and nurses for their care and work to save lives, referencing his own hospital visits as a young boy living in rural Missouri.

“You are vital,” Hawley said to the nurses and doctors present at the press briefing. “And it is time that we made a commitment as a nation to protect these doctors in these emergency rooms, so that we can serve the people of the United States.”

(Image credit: Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash)