Health Care Reform
In nearly every way, rural health care lags behind what's available in and around U.S. cities:
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Rural residents are twice as likely to die from a non-auto-related injury, receive less treatment for chronic disease and report lower rates of overall health.
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Seniors are less able to afford life-saving medications given the high rates of poverty and lower rates of prescription drug coverage.
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Employer-based insurance coverage is least prevalent in outlying regions because skyrocketing costs forced many small business to drop the benefit. Today, nearly 75 percent of uninsured rural residents own or work at such mom-and-pop operations.
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There's an alarming shortage of hospitals and health care professionals in rural communities. In fact, over 50 million Americans live in areas where there aren't enough providers to meet basic primary care needs.
What we have on our hands is a health care emergency.
Rural voters who care about the health of their neighbors and their communities will join us in telling Congress that health care reform needs to address access by fixing Medicare reimbursement inequities. And they need to hear from us, above the loud voices of disinformation and fear-mongering, that reform must include a strong public option plan.
The fact is that insurance companies profit from denying care to their customers. We need to have a moral, practical and universal alternative to the status quo that provides care for our people. It doesn't matter whether we call it a public option, Mediare for All, or as some have suggested, an American Plan. But rural Americans, all Americans, need it now.