By The Star Staff
Sen. William Villafañe Ramos, the New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate for resident commissioner, reiterated on Sunday the need and the right that American citizens residing in Puerto Rico have to be treated equally in matters related to health, and emphasized that from Washington, D.C. he will promote various strategies to give greater visibility to the issues that impact the more than 3.2 million residents of the island.
“As resident commissioner, my priority will be to ensure that every child of this land has the same opportunities as fellow citizens of other states without having to leave our beloved land and that we manage to create the conditions so that the thousands of Puerto Ricans who have left can return home,” Villafañe said. “Certainly, issues related to health deserve all our efforts to achieve equal access to all federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, SSI, among others, so that they do not suffer from the disparities that we, the residents of the island, suffer from.”
In his most recent participation in a forum for candidates for resident commissioner, Villafañe said the issue of health is fundamental to the quality of life of a people.
“As [La Fortaleza] chief of staff, during the passage of Hurricane Maria, I experienced precisely what the need for medical attention is for our people,” he said. “I carried out more than 50 missions with emergency management personnel and we saw how in isolated communities, people with conditions that needed immediate medical attention did not have access to health services or medicines. I was able to see the importance of having a health center in isolated communities, and it is my commitment to work for that.”
He added that “as a senator, I had to live through the pandemic and I saw how everyone who worked in a hospital risked their lives to save others.”
“This spirit of service is not learned in the best universities, but rather it is innate and reinforced by the values that are taught to you at home, and it is this spirit of service that I share with each and every one of the workers in the health field,” the candidate said. “For this reason, I will work to expand funding to strengthen the infrastructure, resources and training that hospitals need.”
Villafañe stressed that the fight for equality is not a mere whim, and that the issue is essential since “the disparity between the treatment that Puerto Rico receives and the benefits that the states receive in terms of health is one of the main reasons why our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters have decided to move to one of the 50 states.”
“Puerto Rico faces significant inequalities in access to federal benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid,” he noted. “In Medicare Advantage, the island receives 40% less funding than the states, which seriously limits access to quality health services. We will also fight for Puerto Rico to be included in mandatory benefits that are not currently covered such as long-term care, nursing facility services, home health services, and non-emergency transportation to medical care, among others.”
Villafañe added that his agenda as resident commissioner includes “ensuring that every bill presented to Congress includes language to extend its benefits to Puerto Rico.”
“It is important that we participate in early identification and intervention programs for the most prevalent health conditions; in this way, we will be able to strengthen the preventive phase,” he said “In addition, we will identify federal funds to strengthen and expand provider networks until they achieve a similar level of adaptation to that of the states. Not having an adequate provider network creates a bottleneck that hinders access to nearby, fast, and high-quality health services.”
The candidate also highlighted the need to obtain funding for the public Vital Plan, whose current allocation expires in 2027.
“We will not rest until we achieve equal Medicaid funding, the same as a state, and obtain the maximum reimbursement allowed by law. In this way, the government of Puerto Rico would not have to cover such a high difference,” Villafañe said. “In states with high poverty levels, they receive a higher reimbursement than Puerto Rico currently receives.”
I believe in that and praying for it for the people of this great island