Providing Incentives for Rural Health Care Providers

Many times the difference between life and death in how quickly you can access care. Knowing that and with the severe shortage of doctors in rural America, something has to be done to entice physicians to rural America. My bill will offer physicians a tax credit to locate their practices in underserved, rural areas of the country, which will increase access to care, which will save lives. Montana is particularly hard hit by the lack of doctors. Forty six of Montana’s fifty six counties are classified as frontier – 24 of those have fewer than two people per square mile and ten of those have less than one per square mile. However, what is even more striking is nine of these frontier counties have no doctors at all, and ten others have fewer than three. Consequently, a large percentage of Montanans must travel great distances simply to get basic medical treatment. That has to change, and it will with my bill.