Commissioner Farmer Appoints All-Star Panel to Study Rural Health Care Issues in Kentucky

News Date August 01, 2007

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has appointed a bipartisan, all-star panel to examine health care issues in rural Kentucky and develop recommendations for the 2008 Kentucky General Assembly.

At the Farm Credit Services of Mid-America customer appreciation dinner Tuesday in Mount Sterling, Farmer announced that Louisville attorney and business leader Vickie Yates Brown will chair the panel.

"This group's job is to comb through the numerous ideas that have been floated from both Republicans and Democrats, from industry and consumer groups, from doctors and patients, to find steps that we can take, not 20 years from now, not five years from now, but immediately to address some of the problems facing us," Farmer said.

The panel will look at the availability and affordability of health care and find ways to use fresh fruits and vegetables grown on Kentucky farms to alleviate the obesity problem in rural Kentucky. Adult obesity costs the state $1.2 billion annually, according to a 2004 study. The 2003 Kentucky Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 30 percent of Kentucky youth are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, and only 13 percent of Kentucky high school students eat the recommended five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

"It is time we stop using the Band-Aid approach to health care," Farmer said. "While we have been treating the symptoms, the patient has died."

Kentucky's rural areas suffer from a shortage of doctors and hospitals and soon will face a shortage of dentists, Farmer said. Rising costs have left many families and small businesses unable to afford health insurance. He said farmers throughout the Commonwealth tell him health care is one of their greatest concerns.

"This is a genuine crisis--a crisis that threatens the security of hard-working families just like you," Farmer said.