Statistics Related to Access to Health Care Entities in Rural America
Paradoxical things and processes are taking place in the relationship between public health and the population in the United States (US). Quality in terms of technology and personnel is steadily increasing. However, access to essential and standard treatments and services and high-quality and specific ones for people are becoming more and more financially and physically limited (Wolf). This statement is especially relevant for those US lands that are considered rural. According to Wolf, a problem that can be described as “rural hospital closures (118 since 2010, including 17 this year alone) are escalating” was relevant in medical circles back in 2019. As a result, the distance between healthcare facilities and communities and the lack of medical resources and personnel continues to go up. Although the situation for 2022 is yet to be assessed, one can say that these statistics have only worsened.
Causal Argument about the Issue
Observation, analysis, and interpretation of the above statistical information related to the health care structure and the rural population of America allow one to develop an inference about their physical relationship. This causal argument is that the decline in healthcare infrastructure and systems in the rural US, mainly residential locations, leads to an increase in the incidence of chronic and acute conditions and higher monetary costs on health for patients. One of the competent experts of the health institution said that “once a critical access hospital … closes, they almost never come back” (Wolf). Nowadays, this destructive trend seems almost irreversible, and the overall situation looks very resource-intensive and challenging in terms of recovery and infrastructure improvement.
Work Cited
Wolf, Mark. “The Health Care Worker/Hospital Shortage in Rural America.” National Conference of State Legislatures, Web.