Archive Report
Archive Report
Urban vs. Rural Health Care
Unmet Health Needs of Rural People
Living in the country can be hazardous to your health. That is the conclusion of those who have examined the relationship between where Americans live and the kind of health care they receive. Doctors tend to live and work in affluent areas close to large cities, leaving rural areas, as well as the inner cities, inadequately served. “The need for decent, affordable and accessible health care,” Vice President Walter F. Mondale said last year, “is one of the most pressing unmet needs in rural America today.”1 According to another observer, health care “is simply another vital service the system has decreed ’off limits’ to rural people — a striking example of ’placeism,’ or discrimination against ...