August 23, 2019 CHART REVIEW

Andrew Strohman, Health Care Data Analyst

Hospitals are critical for health services in rural areas, anchoring the health care system in many communities, and the introduction of a public insurance option could risk exacerbating the disparity in access to care between rural and urban areas. Navigant recently published a report detailing how a Medicare public option—using Medicare reimbursement rates—would put many rural hospitals at risk of closure by reducing their profit margins, yet these hospitals are already stretched. The graph below shows the strain on medical professionals in rural areas that exists today. Based on 2017 data from the Rural Health Information Hub, 91 percent of nonmetropolitan counties face some degree of shortage for primary care professionals, while 97 percent face shortages for mental health care—rates much higher than their metropolitan counterparts. Whole shortage, partial shortage, and no shortage indicate if a county has an inadequate supply throughout its geographic domain or if the shortage is contained to part of it.

Data are from the Rural Health Information Hub, funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

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