Mike Franken’s Health Care Agenda Would Bankrupt Rural Hospitals
WEST DES MOINES – Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Mike Franken has previously expressed support for creating a so-called public option.
“On health care [Franken] promotes expanding the Affordable Care Act to establish a public option,” WHBF reported. This once again puts Franken in lockstep with President Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda – Biden, who Franken has said “is doing a fabulous job as president,” has also expressed support for creating a public option.
If Franken were to succeed in implementing a public option, one analysis found 52 of Iowa’s rural hospitals would be at risk of closing – eliminating health care access for thousands of Iowans. These hospitals also have an important economic impact on rural communities – one study found that, on average, 14 percent of jobs in small towns are related to health care.
The Franken-Biden agenda is another Washington knows best mindset and would place up to a $476 million burden on rural hospitals. This would create a catastrophic financial challenge that would likely result in rural hospitals going bankrupt. Rural hospitals across the country could lose up to $25.6 billion in revenue if Franken gets his way and rubber stamp the Biden agenda to upend the health care system as we know it.
Meanwhile, Senator Chuck Grassley has worked hard in a bipartisan fashion to ensure rural hospitals can keep their doors open for patients.
This year, Grassley introduced a bipartisan bill to protect rural Iowans’ access to health care by bolstering key Medicare programs. He’s also the author of a rural emergency health care law that aims to help struggling rural hospitals keep their doors open. As chairman of the Finance Committee, Grassley worked to make mental telehealth visits a permanent benefit in Medicare.
“The contrast couldn’t be more clear: Mike Franken’s radical health care agenda would destroy rural hospitals in Iowa and severely limit Iowans’ access to care. He’d be a rubber stamp for the Biden agenda and leave rural America behind,” Grassley Works Communications Director Michaela Sundermann said.
