Living in a rural county shouldn't be a death sentence.

But sometimes that's what it looks like.

More and more rural counties are losing doctors, hospitals, and clinics – and it's leaving millions of Americans worse off in case of an emergency.

In the last decade, over 100 rural hospitals have closed. Right now, 700 more are at serious risk of closing. Of those still operating, fewer than half have maternity wards to accommodate mothers about to go into labor.

At least three predominately rural states (Wyoming, Alaska, and Idaho) have no Level 1 trauma centers at all. These are facilities able to treat critical injury and illness (like serious car accidents or heart attacks) 24 hours per day. Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington State have only one to two of these specialized facilities to serve a combined population of nearly thirteen million people.

With fewer hospitals and greater distance between facilities, some 63% of trauma patients die before reaching the hospital in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. That figure in the densely-populated Northeast is more than 20% less.

If people are literally bleeding to death before they can get to an open hospital or trauma center, the system isn't working.

As the U.S. Senate continues its confirmation hearings to fill out the President's cabinet, what we know right now is that our next Secretary of Health & Human Services must commit the funding and support needed to keep rural hospitals and clinics open and solvent, expand telehealth offerings for seniors and the disabled, and expand Medicaid coverage, particularly for expectant and new mothers.

Americans deserve world-class health care no matter where they live.

Heidi

Heidi Heitkamp, Former U.S. Senator for North Dakota
Founder, One Country Project