Rural America is in need of intensive care. Market forces can address that need — if we let them.
Rural America is running out of doctors. According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 43 million Americans now live in rural communities facing a shortage of primary care providers.
This shortage isn’t new. It’s been reality for rural America for decades. And it helps explain why patients there experience higher rates of chronic illness — and die sooner — than their urban counterparts.
At first glance, the problem seems simple — too few doctors and nurses. But if that’s the case, why have so many states adopted regulations that restrict the supply of care?
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
Red tape is strangling rural health care. It’s time to cut it
Sally C. Pipes
Rural America is in need of intensive care. Market forces can address that need — if we let them.
Rural America is running out of doctors. According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 43 million Americans now live in rural communities facing a shortage of primary care providers.
This shortage isn’t new. It’s been reality for rural America for decades. And it helps explain why patients there experience higher rates of chronic illness — and die sooner — than their urban counterparts.
At first glance, the problem seems simple — too few doctors and nurses. But if that’s the case, why have so many states adopted regulations that restrict the supply of care?
Read the entire op-ed in St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.