The rural agenda for healthcare reform.

ONVERSUS OFF-BUDGET PROVISIONS In most healthcare reform proposals, Human explained at the National Rural Health Association's annual conference last May, provisions that would benefit rural areas are on budget rather than off budget. Provisions that are off budget such as increases in payments through taxes, through Medicare, or through employer payments—are self-financing and thus perhaps not subject to the same scrutiny as on-budget items, he explained. But, he noted, these off-budget provisions arc "intended to extend coverage to a larger pan of the public, but not to extend capacity into rural areas."