One of the top advocacy issues that the American Hospital Association (AHA) has had are the small, rural, and critical access hospitals. This report will focus on the limited access of rural communities and their disproportional reliance on government support due to their small size and modest financial assets. Rural communities are being impacted with very similar healthcare issues that are being challenged in more urban areas. They are about 51 million people that rely on the rural healthcare system for crucial healthcare services. They also have increasing healthcare cost; many seniors and minority groups are uninsured or underinsured and are confronted with out-of-date medical systems and infrastructure.
The rural population is older on average than any time before and there are more poor people that have a reduced amount of employer healthcare coverage. This causes a larger reliance on federal programs such as Medicare and county and state healthcare programs such as Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). These communities are faced with uninsured and underinsured groups and are hard hit with increases in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. There are also more small businesses not providing
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The issue is that most rural areas have more healthcare plans for individuals that do not have most of the same laws and regulations. This causes a higher risk of having higher premiums with those with higher rates of disease, disability, and pre-existing conditions. In addition, seniors living alone without assistance and care takers that can help with healthcare services make up a large percentage of the rural population. Legislation for healthcare reform is needed to promote and increase healthcare access, reduce the obstacles for affordable healthcare, and increase healthcare outcomes in rural