While at a recent town hall on Lanaʻi, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda was sitting in a park talking to a kupuna about access to health care.
"(They said) it's really hard to be born here, and it's really hard to die here," Tokuda recalled Tuesday.
At another town hall, Tokuda met a grandmother on Molokaʻi whose daughter had to leave after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
"To be able to actually take care of oneself or one's loved one, it comes at a financial cost, it comes at a transportation cost," Tokuda said. "We know it's not easy to be able to fly consistently, at an affordable rate for so many who live on our neighbor islands, especially Molokaʻi and Lanaʻi."
These are some of the issues Tokuda hopes to bring light to, and possibly find legislation to address, with the advent of the Congressional Bipartisan Rural Health Caucus. In its recruiting phase now, the caucus was last active about a decade ago.
Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, said the caucus provides "an opportunity to shed light on critical issues facing many rural providers and patients."
According to a 2020 report from the Chartis Center for Rural Health, 62% of rural hospitals don't have intensive care unit beds.
Often, in Hawaiʻi, neighbor island patients must fly to Oʻahu for specialty care, which can include anything from oncology appointments to the high-risk birth of their child.
The caucus's relaunch is a partnership between Tokuda and Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee.
"At the end of the day, both of our districts suffer from a lack of access to health care," Tokuda said.
Harshbarger, a longtime pharmacist in East Tennessee, pointed to ongoing shortages as hindering rural health care.
"Rural health care providers throughout the country, especially those in East Tennessee, grapple with workforce shortages, supply scarcities, reimbursement challenges, and difficulties ensuring their patients receive the care they need," Harshbarger said in a press release.
Tokuda said some potential goals could include looking at reimbursements, providing support for rural health centers, and addressing the workforce.
Already, Tokuda has worked together with other representatives to introduce the Rural Health Clinic Burden Reduction Act. The legislation is meant to modernize and update regulations at these clinics.
"We are right now in our history a very divided Congress, we're a divided country," Tokuda said. "I do feel that this caucus has the potential to bring us together to bring us together on behalf of the health and the wellness of our communities, and looking forward to being able to really kick that off in earnest in the next couple of weeks."
