WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1) and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-5) on Friday lead a bipartisan group of 19 members of Congress in sending a letter to the House leadership calling on them to extend Medicare health benefits to rural communities.

The benefits include assistance for rural facilities and health providers to recruit and retain skilled practitioners, provide quality outpatient care and mental health services and respond to emergency health events.

“Every person deserves access to high quality health care regardless of if they live in a big city, small town, or rural community,” said Thompson. “Congress must act to extend these benefits, like it has done many times before, to help ensure that the people living in rural areas can continue to receive the same level of health care services.”

“Access to quality health care is a rapidly-growing challenge in Eastern Washington’s rural communities,” said McMorris Rodgers. “To deal with that challenge, Congress has on previous occasions wisely enacted a number of programs to help rural health facilities and those they serve. It’s critical that those programs be protected to ensure the health and well-being of the 1 in 4 Americans who live in our country’s rural communities.”

Approximately one fourth of all Americans live in rural areas that rely on local community hospitals, clinics and independent practices for their health care. Many of these facilities face significant challenges that these benefits help them overcome such as remote geographic location, small size, workforce scarcity, physician shortages and constrained financial resources.

In addition to the health benefits provided by these facilities, they also provide jobs to hard hit rural communities.

The average Critical Access Hospital directly employs more than 100 people and provides more than $4 million in direct salary, wages and benefits.

An independent physician in a rural area supports more than 20 jobs and provides $1 million in economic benefit to their communities.

“These Medicare “extenders” are vital to ensuring rural health care facilities remain open. We commend Representatives McMorris Rodgers and Thompson for recognizing these challenges and working to extend these vital programs,” said Maggie Elehwany, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Rural Health Association.