New Data on Access to Healthcare in Rural America Could Mean Opportunity for Urgent Care

Health system consolidation, reductions in hospital services, and hospital closures have been making it harder for residents of rural communities of the United States to get reasonable access to high-quality healthcare for years now. It’s fallout from abortion legislation that could be the tipping point that sends some of those communities into crisis mode, however. JUCM News has reported predictions of this dire scenario from various sources previously, but now there are actual data confirming those concerns. According to an article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, 82% of physician and trainee respondents to a survey said they would prefer to work or train in states where access to abortion has been preserved. Three-quarters of those respondents said they would not apply for a job in states in which there are legal consequences for providing abortion care. This is expected to be a bigger problem in rural communities because states that tend to have more rural areas (Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Arkansas are called out in the article) already have fewer physicians per capita than Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and other states with major metropolitan areas. There is also overlap between states with the most restrictive abortion laws and an already-existing dearth of healthcare providers. “Laws that criminalize abortion care (particularly when clear exceptions for patient health are not clearly delineated) are likely to have the unintended consequence of discouraging physicians from practicing in the states and communities where patients need them the most,” the authors conclude. The flip side of this is that there may be opportunities for urgent care operators to meet the growing demand for accessible healthcare in such states and communities. Read Rural and Tertiary Markets: The Next Urgent Care Frontier in the JUCM archive for more insights.