DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) – Rep. Paul Lee has emerged as one of the most influential members of the Alabama House after the 2022 elections and leadership shuffle.
He is only one of two lawmakers remaining from the 2010 takeover that gave Republicans control of the House for the first time. Rep. Terri Collins is the other.
“The hope is to come in and get a lot done,” Lee said of the upcoming session with 37 new members on board in the 105 member House, but he admits “there will be a learning curve.”
Lee was reappointed last month by newly elected House speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter to chair the powerful health committee.
A former Houston County Healthcare Authority member, Lee believes medical care is perhaps the most important issue facing Alabamians.
“We’ve lost about a dozen (rural) hospitals in the state in the past four or five years,” Lee told News 4 on Monday.
That is one of several reasons he wants the health committee to take a hard look at issues that also include struggling urban hospitals.
Southeast Health, the Dothan based medical network, claims it lost $10 million in the last fiscal year.
Alabama providers receive less than other states in Medicare and Medicaid payments, per reports, and that coupled with increased operating costs has stretched the healthcare industry thin.
Lee said he is unsure of the role lawmakers can play in solving the healthcare issues because most of the problems are out of their control, but he plans to work with the health committee to find possible options and, at the least, create a better understanding of challenges the industry faces.
Lee becomes the only Wiregrass lawmaker to chair a powerful House committee after Ledbetter declined to reappoint Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, to lead the House Ways and Means Committee.
Clouse, respected by those in both parties, has said this will be his final term after serving in the House since 1994.
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