Health care measures championed by McMorris Rodgers, Burgess, Upton advance from committee

The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently passed 10 health care bills that included funding for important public health programs, measures championed by U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Fred Upton (R-MI).

Legislation that would reauthorize federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which expired on Sept. 30, would continue health coverage for low-income children. The committee also approved reauthorizing the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program, considered essential to addressing the nation’s health care provider shortages.

Included in the committee-approved Community Health And Medical Professionals Improve Our Nation (CHAMPION) Act, was a bill that McMorris Rodgers had led to reauthorize the THCGME program that slots physicians into residency programs at teaching health centers in rural areas. McMorris Rodgers had introduced her bipartisan bill, the Training the Next Generation of Primary Care Doctors Act of 2017, in July with U.S. Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA) and Niki Tsongas (D-MA).

“Bringing more physicians to Eastern Washington is one of my top priorities,” McMorris Rodgers said. “Our rural and urban underserved communities struggle to access the medical professionals they need and Teaching Health Center programs like the Spokane Teaching Health Clinic will help create a new generation of rural doctors — trained right here in our community.”

Washington State University-Spokane Chancellor Daryll DeWald noted that the university system has been a strong supporter of the THCGME program, committing funding to design and build the Spokane Teaching Health Center to address physician shortages in Eastern Washington.

“We are grateful for the leadership of Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers in increasing resident slots as a way to ensure physicians stay in the region once they complete their medical education and moving this bill through committee,” DeWald said. “WSU looks forward to working with her to ensure the proposal gets across the finish line.”

The committee also approved the Steve Gleason Enduring Voices Act that McMorris Rodgers introduced to ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) cover speech generating devices for people with degenerative diseases, including former NFL player Steve Gleason.

Burgess, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, applauded committee passage of the CHAMPION Act, the Steve Gleason Enduring Voices Act and the Helping Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers, and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance Delivery Stable (HEALTHY KIDS) Act of 2017.

On Wednesday, “the Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance important pieces of health care legislation that will extend vital, bipartisan safety net programs for the nation’s most vulnerable populations,” Burgess said.

He said the programs, including the Community Health Center Fund, the National Health Service Corps and the Special Diabetes Program, “have proven incredibly effective at connecting individuals in medically underserved areas to care, and I am appreciative of the work that we all have put into the HEALTHY KIDS and CHAMPION Act, which allow for us to continue these programs.”

Upton, meanwhile, said the HEALTHY KIDS Act, which would extend CHIP funding through fiscal year 2022, was an important public health bill that enables lawmakers to keep promises to the nation’s most vulnerable.

“If Michigan’s CHIP program, which currently has more than 39,000 low-income children enrolled, is not extended soon it would be disastrous for our communities,” Upton said. “We must work together to reauthorize this critical program. This legislation is good for Michigan children and families, and I will continue to work hard to get the job done for them.”

Upton said he also played a key role in brokering a bipartisan and bicameral agreement that led to the previous reauthorization of CHIP in 2013.

He also praised the committee’s move to extend funding for Community Health Centers, which serve thousands of residents in Southwest Michigan.