income students access to affordable internet so homework can just be homework. >> cox, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >. host: joining us this morning is congressman larry bucshon, a republican of indiana. he is a medical doctor and sits on the energy committee and is on the healthy future task force doctor-patient relationship subcommittee. he is the chair. thank you for joining us. but as talk about this task force subcommittee. what is your goal? guest: you know, house republicans want to make sure the american people know what we think about policy as it relates to health care. i think it is important to not only talk about what you don't

like about the current policy, but talk about what your ideas are going forward so we can let the american people know. that's what this task force is all about and it will be about the doctor-patient relationship since i'm a physician. we can let the murky people know what we think and how to get better care for patients. host: some recommendations from the task force include reauthorize the support for patients and communities act, remove harmful federal mandates and improve quality metrics on providers, ease the complicity of electronic health records to ensure a patient stays the main focus, and sure access to quality providers and grant timely access to care for patients by performing prior authorization process. congressman, how does this reduce the cost of health care? guest: here's the thing. the biggest part i'm focusing on is the doctor-patient

relationship. cost is another big issue and there are a lot of factors involved. when you talk to doctors, the biggest complaint is they don't could to spend as much time interacting with patients and families as they used to. because the records at what you have to submit to insurance companies or medicare to be paid is onerous. they tell me they spent time staring at a computer screen than talking to our event -- or examining patients and that is one thing. when it comes to reimbursement, particularly for primary care, it is difficult to get physicians into rural america because the reimbursement, how much they get paid by medicare and insurance companies, has dropped dramatically over the last 30 years. they found it troubling to practice into rural america and you add on top of that educational debt, it is a big part of this when it comes to

physicians and other professionals. because they can't afford to practice in rural america. so we need to work on that. another thing that happens is this prior authorization where you want to treat the patient with either medication or therapy and you have to look at the insurance company to approve that, even though you are the physician and that's what yo u're recommending. that's a bureaucracy. tecumseh the, interacting, all of the things medical care have to go through, delays patient care and makes it difficult to have cover stations with the patient and their family. host: i this point i want to encourage our viewers to call in and tell you what their -- they are experiencing with their doctors. if (202) 748-8001 you are republican (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8000 democrats, and

independents, (202) 748-8002. talk to congressman larry bucshon, focusing on the doctor-patient relationship. tell him and get his input on what you are experiencing when you go to the doctor. what about the support for patients and communities act? it is legislation to combat the opioid epidemic. why is it needed? guest: we have an epidemic, as you stated. in fact, i have someone i know in the political sphere in indiana who just had one of their family members succumb to a drug overdose. we have dramatic problems, not only in urban america but rural america. most of my district is rural and people think, you see on the news this happening in urban america. let me tell you, rural america is in more trouble. we have a plethora of drugs flooding into our country from

the southern border, but we also have people mailing them from china for example. we are trying to stop that. they can actually mail medications from china that is laced with fentanyl. so this is affecting everyone. across socioeconomic groups. this is not the old days where the oppression was, because of tv shows, this only affects certain people. this is affecting families, across ethnic groups, racial groups and a socioeconomic class. all the way from low income to these people. it is a scourge. last year we lost thousands to opioids. anything we can do to shine a light on that, increase access to therapy including radical assistance and treatment, is

important. host: let's get to calls, rita in orland park, illinois from a republican. good morning. caller: good morning, i want to tell the representative i think it's awesome he is doing this. i used to work for physicians and we went out of business due to going from service -- we cannot afford it and it was affecting our patients, but i'm portly, the amount of paperwork was overwhelming. had to wait on approval just to treat our patients. the amount of paperwork, medicare or medicaid, regular insurance companies, our doctors throughout our arms. it was so pressured a. i think something needs to be done about it. i'm just not sure they will ever address it because the insurance companies so powerful. but i think it's awesome and i support it. guest: well thank you. you are hearing directly from

someone who has worked with physicians. that is what i hear from physicians every day. people go into health care, a physician, nurse, nurse practitioner or other health care writers, because they love interaction with patients and families and they want to help people with medical issues. it becomes frustrating when you find yourself spinning most of your time dealing with paperwork without talking to or examining the patient. in the me tell you, and has been shown if you have a poor relationship with your patient or family because you have not interacted with them a lot, and results in more litigation as far as medical malpractice claims because there is no personal relationship established. this is a big problem and we want to try to address it. host: brenda and california, democratic color, what is your comment -- question or comment for the congressman? caller: comment. host: go ahead.

caller: my comment is, what i found as an african american woman, what i found is i used to have a good doctor and he passed away. it is almost impossible to find another, good doctor who is going to take care of my needs and treat me in a respectful way. what i find is with the new doctors i go to, they don't even order tests. they don't even follow up with you to make sure you're getting what you need. so yes, i want the doctors to be paid better, because i work in health care. i worked in a primary care clinic at a general hospital for over 30 years. so i know what the paperwork is. i know the struggle the doctors have when they have to look at the computer and not at the

person when they are trying to evaluate them. and how many other people have had to get involved so the doctors will be able to talk to their patients? so i supported, but i also think that within it, you need to still deal with health care disparity. it is a real issue and it happens to people. and that is also affecting the patient. the patient-doctor relationship. host: ok, brenda. congressman? guest: i would agree with every she just said. we know their health is verities , whether in parts of urban america based on the relationship and patient populations including the african-american community, but let me tell you we also have disparities in rural, white america. this is what we're talking about here.

it is hard to recruit new quality physicians, as she described finding a new doctor into certain areas of our economy. rural america, or urban america. because physicians come out of medical school with a lot of debt and it is just not practical for them to go into a practice, for example, or almost all of the patients are in the medicaid program. because medicaid does not pay well enough for them to feel like they can pay back their student loans. so i agree with everything she said. there are disparities, no doubt. rural, urban america, different ethnic groups and racial groups. there are disparities, we know this. it is factual. >> and we'll leave this here to keep our over 40-year commitment to congressional coverage. you can continue watching this on c-span now. the u.s. house about to gavel in. today, lawmakers will debate four years on mental healt