The Impact of Healthcare Reform on Rural Healthcare

The election year means that we may be on the verge of another healthcare reform. In general, healthcare reform ignores the plight of rural healthcare and rural healthcare suffers. In fact, rural healthcare is at risk with or without healthcare reform. Currently, healthcare in America is not for and it cannot continue in the ways we have known it but it is particularly unfair to rural peoples. While every approach to healthcare reform has tradeoffs, the ones who tend to suffer are the elderly and the rural areas.

While it seems simple, we must beware of healthcare reformers who promise to do it all. If it is too good to believe, it is truly not worth believing. Many different ways of changing healthcare are possible and all affect key interests and goals differently. Some competing goals address costs, the uninsured, quality, fairness, choice and making communities healthy. Rural healthcare needs are often in direct competition with the needs of suburban and urban healthcare needs.

Rural healthcare reform needs to address access to quality healthcare, access to hospitals, access to specialists and emergency medical concerns. The way the current system is set up, it is difficult for rural peoples to enjoy the same access to healthcare as those living in urban centers. There is no incentive for doctors to practice in rural areas and quality of life for doctors in rural healthcare systems is perceived to be lacking. Rural healthcare’s many successes are a testament to the endurance and creativity of rural communities. Reform needs to build on that strength and not weaken it.