A View from the Periphery — Health Care in Rural America

Abstract

Urban Americans tend to view the rural United States as a larder, a playground, or a place to retire. But although agriculture now employs less than 3 percent of the nation's workforce, more than 50 million people — 20 percent of our population — live in places defined as rural by the 2000 Census. Inhabitants of rural areas are generally older, poorer, and less likely to have health insurance than inhabitants of urban areas. Enormous regional variation masks the fact that rural America contains pockets of deep poverty; of the nation's 500 poorest counties, 459 are in rural areas.¹ Rural . . .