POMEROY — Improvements to rural health care were part of a campaign platform that put Barack Obama in the White House, and some of his proposals, if they indeed become reality, would address Meigs County’s own health care shortages.

Obama addressed the National Rural Health Association in October. The organization advocates for improved health care in rural communities. In his remarks to the association, Obama acknowledged both the lack of health care services in rural communities, and the significant impact hospitals and health care providers have on the local rural economy.

Obama has proposed providing insurance coverage to the uninsured through the existing health care system and insurance plans while strengthening coverage for those with private insurance, but Obama told the Rural Health Care Association he would also work to expand facilities.

“Extending insurance coverage is a hollow victory if there are no facilities and providers available,” Obama said in October.

Obama said he would address the disparity in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, in which rural providers often get paid less than their urban counterparts when they perform the same procedure.

That reimbursement disparity is one reason, local officials have said, it is difficult to attract health care providers into the community, because such a large part of the local population depends on those programs for their health care coverage.

Obama also told the association he would:

• Create loan forgiveness and related types of incentive programs to help attract health care providers to rural areas.

• Increase the federal capital available to build start up community health centers, many of which are in underserved rural areas.

• Increase access to health care in rural areas by promoting the wider adoption of effective telecommunications and health information technologies.

• Increase the number of Veterans Affairs centers and oppose outsourcing VA services, while allowing the VA to contract with other health care providers in remote areas where there is inadequate access to a VA medical center or it is impractical to build one.

The federal government subsidizes costs associated with the Family Health Care practice in Middleport through the Federally-Qualified Health Care program. It provides health care on a sliding fee scale regardless of insurance coverage, and is reimbursed at a higher rate through Medicare than private providers are.

This Community Health Center concept is strongly endorsed by the NRHA. Last year, County Commissioners spent $70,000 in grant funds to study the feasibility of combining the Community Health Center with a 24-hour emergency room facility. That study was due to be completed in September, but commissioner have still not received a final report.

According to the NRHA, representatives of the organization had a formal meeting with members of the Obama Health Policy Transition Team in Washington, and the NRHA provided the health policy staff items that could be dealt with immediately to help deal with payment inequities, a looming workforce crisis in rural America and physical infrastructure needs.

Commissioners have identified space near Meigs High School and the Community Improvement Corporation has purchased land there in hopes that a medical campus, including a 24-hour emergency room facility, can be built there.