October 29, 2009

Assuring Health Coverage for Rural People Through Health Reform

Andrew F. Coburn, Ph.D. A. Clinton MacKinney, M.D., M.S. Timothy D. McBride, Ph.D. Keith J. Mueller, Ph.D. Rebecca T. Slifkin, Ph.D. and Erika Ziller, M.S. state that rural residents of the United States have a higher uninsured rate than their urban counterparts, and therefore have the most to gain from efforts to reform the U.S. health care system. Currently, the challenges that rural people face in obtaining health insurance are partly due to the structure of the rural economy: 64 percent of adults working in rural areas that are not adjacent to urban centers are employed in jobs where health insurance is provided, compared to 71 percent of their urban counterparts. The article describes how rural workers pay higher costs than do urban workers for similar health insurance plans and the rural workers would benefit most from a particular health coverage.