Rural Health Takes Centre Stage In DC January 29, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Drugs, Election '08, Healthcare, Politics, Reform.add a comment
The National Rural Health Association will be meeting for the next few days during the 19th Annual National Rural Policy Institute taking place at the Capitol Hilton, located just blocks from the White House, here in Washington, D.C.
NHRA President Paul Moore regales the meeting as an opportunity to hear directly from high-ranking officials in the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress on issues directly affecting health care for rural Americans.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Kerry Weems spoke today on the significant changes that have happened in the Medicare and Medicaid systems that are of interest to rural providers since the last Policy Institute. These changes include new rules dealing with Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, physicians and other health providers and Medicare payments to rural hospitals. The CMS Administrator will outline what changes are underway for providers and patients, what rural Americans can expect in the coming year from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Weems also provided an update on future initiatives of the Administration towards these programs.
For First-Time Attendees there was an orientation held today. The purpose of the orientation was to provide an overview of the 19th Annual Rural Health Policy Institute to those new to the organization. Also during this session there was an orientation to the nation’s capital for first-time visitors, an overview of the conference agenda and goals, and a preview of NRHA’s main advocacy message for visits to Capitol Hill. The policy institute is primarily an advocacy meeting; these people will charge Capitol Hill on the conference’s final day. They will attempt to make Congress aware of the disproportionate funding that exists between urban and rural health care.
The afternoon sessions were the most interesting to many of the attendees.
One of those sessions covered was veterans’ issues. The Veterans Administration Office of Rural Affairs Director Kara Hawthorne was in attendance. The Veterans Administration Office of Rural Affairs (VAORA) is a new office within the VA system set with the task of promoting health care with rural veterans. The NRHA and VAORA have established a partnership in providing rural veterans with the best possible health care for a particular region. The new office attempts to make sure that the needs of rural veterans are being met by the VA system. The Hawthorne presented an update to attendees on the efforts to start the office and what the office hopes to accomplish in the coming years.
Another session that received warm reviews dealt with Successful Rural Health Advocacy. NHRA’s Manager for Government Affairs Tim Fry led this discussion. The interactive session served as an introduction to NRHA members in the advocacy process at the federal level. For beginners this session gave the basics of how to successfully interact with congressional members and staffers. For experienced advocates, this session served as a refresher.
During tomorrow and Wednesday’s sessions you can expect much larger turnouts. Members of the U.S. Senate are expected to participate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) were scheduled to attend, but scheduling issues have made that impossible. In their place, Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) will be attending. Lincoln is the Democratic Caucus Chair for Rural Outreach on the Senate Finance Committee. Her caucus directs Medicare and Medicaid policy for the Senate. Roberts is the Co-Chair for the Senate Rural Health Caucus. Sen. Roberts also sits on both the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee. His committees oversees many health interests in the Senate. Overall, both Senators will be speaking on the importance in the field of Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and other federal entitlement programs. The Senators will deliver a detailed timeline of what they hope can be accomplish before the end of the 110th Congress.
On Wednesday, January 30th, the big session on Rural Health Care and the 2008 Election will take place. 2008 is already set to be an important election – possibly the most important in the last few decades. The 44th President of the United States will be historic. NHRA is very concerned of both parties and their likely nominee. Questions such as, “What will these candidates mean for rural health care?” or “What was the impact of the truncated primary season?” are important to an organization like NHRA.
U.S. Attorney General Speaks To Political Crowd January 28, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Crime, Government, Life, Prisons, Reform.add a comment
The U.S. Conference of Mayors conference had a special guest last Thursday. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey spoke to hundreds mayors on a pending early release of hundreds of crack-cocaine dealers whose sentences have been judged unfairly harsh. Mukasey says these inmates early release threatens to cause more crime in U.S. cities.
But some mayors said Mukasey was exaggerating the threat and described the real problem as a lack of federal assistance for programs aimed at helping ex-convicts return to society.
About 1,600 convicted criminals may be released as early as March. Mukasey warned that many of these people are violent gang member. “A sudden influx of criminals from federal prison into your communities could lead to a surge in new victims with a tragic but predictable result,” Mukasey shrieked.
But Kevin Burns, the mayor of North Miami, Florida, said Mukasey seemed to be “striking fear” and it was most likely that only non-violent offenders would be released early. “I think it was possibly overstating it a bit,” Burns remarked after the speech.
The attorney general also announced President George W. Bush would seek $200 million in his 2009 budget request on February 4 for a new program to help local governments fight violent crime and gangs by working with federal agencies.
That represents an increase from about $74 million for similar efforts in 2007. Congress did not fund the administration’s request for 2008.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission last month made retroactive its earlier reduction in recommended sentences for crack dealing, which is punished more harshly than similar offenses involving powder cocaine.
Critics say the sentence disparities passed in response to a violent crack epidemic have unfairly punished blacks, who account for most federal crack convictions, while whites are more likely to be arrested on powder cocaine charges. The sentencing commission called the disparities “unwarranted.”
The Bush administration has opposed the retroactive reductions, which take effect March 3 and would allow people already convicted to seek term reductions from the sentencing judge.
The administration argues that applications will clog the courts and early releases will return dangerous criminals to the streets. The reductions will apply to about 20,000 federal crack offenders, and an estimated 2,500 of these will become eligible during 2008 to seek early release.
Some mayors said they agreed with reducing cocaine sentence disparities but shared concerns over early releases. The biggest problem is a lack of programs to help ex-convicts, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayor Bill Finch said.
“A lot of these people feel like society has thrown them on the trash heap,” he told Reuters. “The more we get tough on crime, the more we fill these prisons up, the more we create a balloon at the end that becomes the cities’ problem.”
Mukasey acknowledged a need for education, job training, drug treatment and housing to help ex-offenders, but said these may be unavailable for the early-release crack prisoners.
“We need time to develop all of that and roll it out, time that blanket retroactivity might not allow us,” he said.