When people think about health care access they may imagine the urban poor in crowded emergency rooms at city public hospitals. However, a much larger group of individuals is at risk for limited or no healthcare access: rural residents.
The lack of healthcare providers and high travel costs are major barriers to getting quality healthcare in rural areas. In addition, healthcare professionals have to work at the top of their license if they want to keep the doors open for patients in rural communities. This can result in working long hours and sometimes being away from home for extended periods of time.
Rural residents also have a higher risk for certain illnesses and conditions. These include heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury (including car accidents and opioid overdoses), chronic lower respiratory illness, and mental illness. And the lack of specialists is especially problematic. The National Rural Health Association reports that there are only 30 specialists per 100,000 rural community members, compared to 263 specialists per 100,000 urban residents.
In fact, when it comes to access to reproductive healthcare for women, rural communities are behind urban areas in all states. Women in rural communities are less likely to have a pap smear and fewer pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) visits.
Despite the difficulties in accessing healthcare, it’s important to note that there are some bright spots. For example, a recent study of state-level data showed that although rural residents have lower rates of insurance coverage than urban residents, they are not significantly more likely to report fair or poor health. And in half of the states examined, rural and adjacent area residents reported having the same confidence in their ability to get health care. access to healthcare in rural areas