February 11, 1971
Page 2585
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am very much disturbed by reports that 38 facilities operated by the Public Health Service are to be closed by the end of this fiscal year.
We hear a great deal these days about the health care crisis which our country is facing, as increasingly we have come to accept the premise that access to highquality health care is the right of all Americans, not the privilege of few.
Yet few of us would deny that today, many Americans do not enjoy this right. We in the Congress have made speeches and enacted legislation. The ground has been laid in the Congress for major legislation in the area of health insurance this year.
And the President has promised broad reforms to bring health maintenance within the reach of those Americans who, today cannot afford it.
In the debate on these proposals, we can rightfully expect that some of our most traditional assumptions will be challenged. This is as it should be, for the system we have used for so long has clearly not worked as well as it might have.
Yet, in proposing needed changes, we must be careful not to reject the good from the past along with the bad.
For this reason, I support the resolution just introduced to keep our Public Health Service facilities open while we examine other alternatives for their use.
The Public Health Service hospitals and outpatient clinics have served us well over the years. It has been estimated that in 1969 alone, well over a million cases were handled by these facilities.
In my own State, the Public Health Service hospital in Portland cares for approximately 3,000 to 4,000 people in the area.
Yet the administration is seriously considering the closing of these facilities – without first providing alternative access to the care which the Public Health Service has provided.
I suggest, Mr. President, that such action may introduce an immediate and concentrated demand for care into a system which is already overloaded.
For example, Mercy Hospital in Portland has indicated that it will be willing to step into the gap created by closing the Public Health Service unit there. Yet directors of Mercy Hospital fear that the quality of care that will be provided for this new influx of patients may be less adequate than should be provided.
In hearings before the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee last December, Secretary Richardson indicated his department's interest in converting existing PHS facilities into different kinds of health care units.
I would welcome such a step which could broaden the effectiveness and the outreach of these facilities. Indeed, up to now they have served only a limited segment of the population.
But I suggest, Mr. President, that the way to put these facilities to a more efficient use is not to close them first.