The Health of America’s Rural Residents Could Hinge on Today’s Mass. Senate Election

Posted by Allison S. Bybee

On what is predicted to be an icy, wintery day across the state of Massachusetts, two very different candidates are vying for much more than a Senate seat – each are poised to be a tipping point for what might be characterized as a watershed moment in national and rural healthcare policy.

No matter which candidate captures the most votes in today’s election, at the very least Massachusetts’ political history is guaranteed to be made. If state Senator Scott Brown takes a majority of the vote, then he will be the first Massachusetts Republican senator in over 40 years. On the other hand if current Massachusetts’ Attorney General, Martha Coakley captures a majority of votes, she will be declared as the first female senator from the Bay State.

Yet outside of the scrolls of Massachusetts’ history, there are much greater national stakes are to be had. In the short term, a Republican win here could eliminate the Democratic Party’s current filibuster proof margin in the Senate and would put the ongoing national health care reform process in serious jeopardy. In the long term, a Republican win could very well energize a recently crippled Republican party. Ultimately, such a win in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, would place many Democratically-held congressional seats in jeopardy for the 2010 election cycle and could be heralded as a precursor to a crushing fall term for Democratic incumbents across the nation.

For America’s approximately 63 million rural residents, a Democratic defeat in today’s election could vanquish the nascent hope for health reform bills that promise to progressively impact rural health access and system-wide rural health policy. Currently, facets of both health reform versions aim target two critical overarching priorities in American rural health - reducing rural health workforce shortages while concurrently minimizing decades old disparities in medical reimbursement. If a “conferenced,” or compromised, version of health reform can not pass both houses of Congress in the coming weeks, then the health of rural residents will not doubt suffer. How much and exactly in what ways only time will tell.

[For more details on how current health reform could alter the fiber of American rural health policy, stay tuned for next week’s posting.]