Merkley Monthly: Improving access to rural health care

Rural health care is an urgent challenge in Oregon.

Approximately 35 percent of Oregonians live in rural and frontier communities compared to just 15 percent of the U.S. population. But, too often, we rely on one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t work well in rural communities. So, here’s what I’m doing to help improve access to health care on Oregon’s coast and across the state.

I worked across the aisle to create the new Office of Rural Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This office is responsible for tailoring health care delivery strategies to the unique needs of rural areas, including developing rural-first programs rather than trying to adapt urban programs to rural settings.

I’m also pushing the federal government – as Oregon’s representative on the U.S. Senate spending committee – to keep investing in rural health care. In March, I secured $2 million for a new chemotherapy clinic in Curry County, where chemotherapy services are not currently offered. This means folks will no longer need to travel hundreds of miles outside of their communities for care.

And, after hearing too many heartbreaking stories of addiction and overdose deaths from fentanyl and other drugs from folks around our state, I made sure that Congress invested $145 billion in the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program in fiscal year 2024 to combat addiction across the country.

As the husband of a nurse, I know that many health care providers in rural areas are overworked and underpaid, clocking too many hours, caring for too many patients, and traveling too many miles to provide care. That’s a recipe for burnout – and workforce shortages only make a bad health care situation worse.

That’s why I reintroduced the Future Advancement of Academic Nursing (FAAN) Act to train and retain more nurses. And I’ve reintroduced the Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act to require hospitals and other providers who participate in Medicare to limit mandatory overtime for nurses, so these new nurses don’t burn out and leave the profession.

Telehealth has also been a game-changer for rural health care. Some Oregonians in rural areas have to drive hundreds of miles each way for basic care – and sometimes even farther to see a specialist.

Telehealth brings that care to them. It’s particularly powerful for mental health care, connecting those in isolated areas with the quality care and support they need to thrive. And it’s better for many health care providers, allowing them to spend less time traveling and more time treating patients.

Making telehealth work effectively is yet another reason I believe that high-speed internet has to reach every town and every household across our state. To accomplish that, I supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that included the Broadband Equity, Access, and Development program, which is investing nearly $700 million to expand broadband in Oregon alone. And the American Rescue Plan is providing another 17,000 broadband connections across our state. These investments will connect communities and improve rural health care.

These are just a few ways I’m pushing to improve rural health care on the coast and across our state. I’ll keep fighting for more resources so that all Oregonians can access the health care they need, no matter where they live.

Jeff Merkley represents Oregon in the U.S. Senate.