Rural Health

Rural America faces unique disparities in health care not found in urban areas. Just the sheer isolation of living in remote areas often impedes rural Americans when faced with urgent or primary care needs. With the advent of the CSI 9K Health Care Kiosk, rural residents now have access to convenient health care.

• Only about ten percent of physicians practice in rural America despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the population lives in these areas. **
• Rural residents are less likely to have employer-provided health care coverage or prescription drug coverage, and the rural poor are less likely to be covered by Medicaid benefits than their urban counterparts. **
• Rural residents tend to be poorer. On the average, per capita income is $7,417 lower than in urban areas, and rural Americans are more likely to live below the poverty level. The disparity in incomes is even greater for minorities living in rural areas. Nearly 24% of rural children live in poverty. ** 
• There are 2,157 Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA’s) in rural and frontier areas of all states and US territories compared to 910 in urban areas.**
• Cerebrovascular disease was reportedly 1.45 higher in non-Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) than in MSAs.**
• Hypertension was also higher in rural than urban areas (101.3 per 1,000 individuals in MSAs and 128.8 per 1,000 individuals in non-MSAs.)**
• Medicare payments to rural hospitals and physicians are dramatically less than those to their urban counterparts for equivalent services. This correlates closely with the fact that more than 470 rural hospitals have closed in the past 25 years. **
• Rural residents have greater transportation difficulties reaching health care providers, often traveling great distances to reach a doctor or hospital. **

Source:
**Rural Healthy People 2010—"Healthy People 2010: A Companion Document for Rural Areas," is a project funded with grant support from the federal Office of Rural Health Policy.