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Let’s ask Jo! She’ll know!
Q: It seems that most programs purporting to improve health care access focus on rural Iowa. Why is that?
A: Rural populations tend to be older, with lower incomes and higher rates of comorbidity. Accordingly, they have had fewer health care dollars availble to serve higher maintenance patients. That has led to lowered salaries, which has led to more staff shortages, and so on and so on. But let me be clear that 40 percent of all Iowans live in "rural Iowa," so what impacts them ultimately impacts everyone. And then there's the time-honored tradition of solving every problem by simply throwing money at it.
Is that still sound reasoning today?
No, and it's not that rural health care isn't in crisis; e.g., 66 of our 102 rural hospitals are operating patient services in the red. It's that unmet need and underserved populations are no longer exclusive to rural Iowa. Statewide, providers are dealing with an aging population, epidemic chronic illness, crippling inflation and worker shortages. Waiting months to see a specialist? No urgent care? Closed hospital wings for lack of staff? Delays in receiving EMS? Welcome to the big city! The time for our policy makers to acknowledge the magnitude of this crisis of access for each and every Iowan was yesterday. Tick tock.
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