For immediate release: February 2, 2022
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Bucshon Leads Effort to Aid Those on the Frontlines of the Fight Against COVID-19

“It's vital that we ensure health care professionals have the support they need and deserve.”

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon (IN-8) appeared yesterday before a virtual meeting of The Ripon Society, delivering remarks about the demands being placed on the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who are on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19, and the effort he is leading to provide them with some relief.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on our nation's health care system,” Bucshon stated. “For nearly two and a half years, our doctors and nurses and other ancillary staff have been forced to bear the brunt of this fight, putting their lives on the line every day so that our communities can stay safe and secure. This has not been without a cost.

“Increased emotional demands — including an increase in patient deaths, work hours, social isolation, and the accompanying emotional stress — have strained the well-being of our nation's health care professionals, bringing morale to an all-time low. For the past 50 years, suicide rates have been on the rise amongst physicians and other health care professionals. They have climbed even further during this global health crisis. While our health care professionals are helping their patients fight this deadly virus, many have been coping with their own trauma of losing patients, colleagues, and family members.”

Bucshon was elected to the House in 2010 and serves on the Energy & Commerce Committee. Before coming to Washington, he was a practicing physician and surgeon who specialized in cardiothoracic surgery. Since his election, he has led the effort to advance patient-centered health care reforms that will give patients and their doctors the freedom to make their own health care decisions without interference from Washington bureaucrats.

It is an effort, he added, that is increasingly important given the continuing fight against COVID-19.

“It's vital that we ensure health care professionals have the support they need and deserve as we continue to fight this pandemic,” the Indiana lawmaker said. “That’s why this past June I introduced the Physician Shortage GME Cap Flex Act of 2021, which would address the national physician workforce shortage by empowering new teaching hospitals in underserved areas to increase the number of Medicare-funded residency training program slots in these programs.

“This legislation is an important step forward to addressing our demand for physicians by incentivizing teaching hospitals to stand up residency training programs and primary care or specialties facing shortages to train additional professionals in these areas of need. The bill would also help our nation's rural communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. Staffing and supply shortages are crippling these hospitals. As a result, they are struggling to keep their doors open. It is my belief that providing more avenues to staff these hospitals will only increase access to care and provide the necessary staffing levels needed to keep our rural hospitals open.”

According to Bucshon, health care professionals are not the only ones who are struggling under the weight of the pandemic. Other Americans are hurting and suffering, as well.

“We have seen an increase in drug and alcohol addiction during the pandemic,” Bucshon noted. “Statistics show that 1 in 12 Hoosiers — almost half a million people — meet the criteria for having a substance abuse disorder. It is critical we fight back against addiction, and I've been working on several bills to do that.

" The Opioid Screening and Chronic Pain Management Alternatives for Seniors Act became law last year. I also introduced The Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to expand access to medication assisted treatment for opioid addiction.”

Bucshon also briefly touched on his position as Chair of the House Republican Healthy Future Task Force Subcommittee on Doctor/Patient Relationship, and his overarching goal in the role.

“We need a healthcare system that keeps the government out of the doctor's office, he said, “a system that is not only supportive, but one that allows physicians and patients to interact in a substantial way.”

Following his opening remarks, Bucshon also took a number of questions, including one about another effort he is involved with as a member of the Energy & Commerce Committee — an effort to establish a national privacy standard and protect Americans’ private information.

“Without a national privacy framework,” Bucshon observed, “states — including Virginia, Colorado, and of course, California — have been developing and implementing their own privacy standards. This creates all kinds of problems for companies that work in all 50 states or across multiple states. So it's going to be important to put together some sort of federal framework. That’s a complicated and difficult thing to do, but establishing one standard in the United States will prevent users from having to navigate a myriad of state and local restrictions that could even conflict with one another and make commerce difficult.”

The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.

For more information on The Ripon Society, please visit www.riponsociety.org.

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