Urban-Rural Death Divide Is Getting Alarmingly Wider

Thursday, April 11, 2024

In the 1960s and 1970s, people who lived in rural America fared a little better than their urban counterparts. The rate of deaths from all causes was a tad lower outside of metropolitan areas. In the 1980s, though, things evened out, and in the early 1990s, a gap emerged, with rural areas seeing higher death rates -- and the gap has been growing ever since.

Posted by reinheitsgebot at 05:33 PM | 25 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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I'd lay a huge amount of blame for this on the 10 states that still refuse to expand Medicaid. These rural folks consistently vote against their own best interests though so it's hard to be very sympathetic.

#1 | Posted by qcp at 2024-04-11 08:48 AM | Reply

Republicans, you built that.

#2 | Posted by Wardog at 2024-04-11 09:30 AM | Reply

This is a trend that started 50+ years ago.

Rural America has been impacted by the economies of scale of agriculture.

Fewer middle class families who were relatively healthy found themselves with no future in those towns. Many employers went away. People took their "health" to town, so to speak. And never returned. My small town of 700 people used to have a hospital staffed with an MD.

Long gone ... ...

As I said this is a 50+ year trend.

Medicaid expansion? Rural health outcomes are being impacted by that I'm sure and those will worsen in areas where Medicaid wasn't expanded. But these outcomes were were determined by the reality of agriculture (and some other industries in the rust belt and coal mining states)

#3 | Posted by eberly at 2024-04-11 09:59 AM | Reply

Honest question Eberly. Should Kansas expand Medicaid?? Would that help or hurt us in the long term??

#4 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2024-04-11 10:07 AM | Reply

You get what you vote for.

They brought this on themselves.

#5 | Posted by Sycophant at 2024-04-11 10:16 AM | Reply

"But these outcomes were were determined by the reality of agriculture (and some other industries in the rust belt and coal mining states)"

^
Learned Victimhood.

#6 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-04-11 10:28 AM | Reply

I think it would help, Laura.

#7 | Posted by eberly at 2024-04-11 10:38 AM | Reply

Duh.

I mean, actually getting to see a doctor without having to pay in advance to be seen is going to help improve health outcomes.

Uninsured is Misery. Chronic disease Kills under those conditions.

Even basic treatment for common problems becomes very difficult.

Diabetes, Heart issues, God forbid, Cancer. All are almost untreatable if you're poor and uninsured.

Even infections easily treated with cheap antibiotics can be fatal.

If you have no access to healthcare.

#8 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2024-04-11 12:42 PM | Reply

All roads lead to Rome, Rome being healthcare in this instance.

Ever shrinking access and quality coupled with ever increasing price and poor health of rural residents creates a, forgive the pun, death spiral.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-11 12:56 PM | Reply

...these outcomes were were(sic) determined by the reality of agriculture...other industries...
#3 | Posted by eberly

It's not like it just happened, like the rain.
Thanks Capitalism!

#10 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2024-04-11 03:45 PM | Reply

Most rural areas are "red".

Educated folk are fleeing these increasingly backward authoritarian regimes.

Actions have consequences.

#11 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-04-11 06:41 PM | Reply

But.. but.. but.. Chicago!

#12 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2024-04-12 04:23 AM | Reply

Educated folk are fleeing these increasingly backward authoritarian regimes.

NO they arent you dumbass.

Most cities are emptying with "educated" folk trying to get into country areas as fast as they can fleeing city/progressive utopias.

#13 | Posted by boaz at 2024-04-12 08:44 AM | Reply

Yep. Here in Okiehomie, where Medicaid expansion was put on the state ballot and passed, rural healthcare off the reservations is becoming a myth. Hospitals in small towns are closing one after another, so rural folks who happen to get pregnant, fall form their tractor or have a heart problem get to drive an hour or more to OKC or Tulsa for treatment. And the state is fighting the increase in medical services brought by the Medicaid expansion, thinking Medicaid is for the poor, toothless, dark-skinned or lame. Which describes a large percentage of the rural population here in the Sooner or Later State...

#14 | Posted by catdog at 2024-04-12 09:16 AM | Reply

"rural healthcare off the reservations is becoming a myth. Hospitals in small towns are closing one after another, so rural folks who happen to get pregnant, fall form their tractor or have a heart problem get to drive an hour or more to OKC or Tulsa for treatment"

So you are saying Oklahoma passed medicaid expansion and healthcare has worsened anyway?

#15 | Posted by eberly at 2024-04-12 09:37 AM | Reply

He tricked you with the "authoritarian regimes" thing.

they are leaving rural areas for the reasons I posted in #3. Towns aren't growing and opportunities for many folks are elsewhere. It's not because of anything being an authoritarian regime...it's about opportunities.

He's a 2 bit troll.....don't fall for that crap.

#16 | Posted by eberly at 2024-04-12 09:40 AM | Reply

Most cities are emptying with "educated" folk trying to get into country areas as fast as they can fleeing city/progressive utopias.

#13 | POSTED BY BOAZ

Nope.

Suburbs are expanding. Where do you think the majority of the housing bubble has been built? Suburbs of cities like Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Phoenix, Austin...

#17 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-12 09:59 AM | Reply

Government investment in rural healthcare is the only thing that can salvage it as "the market" has already determined it isn't worth it. Higher investment in this area is prioritized almost exclusively by Democrats. And yet the people living in these areas and suffering through it, by and large, actively dislike Democrats.

#18 | Posted by JOE at 2024-04-12 11:00 AM | Reply

And you can say people aren't single issue voters, and i get that, but none of the other issues matter if you aren't alive. The baseline that affects every single person is healthcare.

#19 | Posted by JOE at 2024-04-12 11:01 AM | Reply

Most cities are emptying...

True. Only 7,931,147 people left in New York. 3,748,640 in Los Angeles. I thought everyone in Chicago had been shot dead but apparently they need 2,590,002 more bullets.

There's even 616,840 people living in Portland and it was burned to the ground a few years ago.

#20 | Posted by REDIAL at 2024-04-12 11:49 AM | Reply | Funny: 3

Republicans cannot be for easy access to affordable healthcare because it might prove them liberal democrats right.

Again.

We cannot have that even even if it kills a ---- load of us.

(See America's response to Covid for more info)

#21 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-04-12 01:16 PM | Reply

There's even 616,840 people living in Portland and it was burned to the ground a few years ago.

#20 | POSTED BY REDIAL

Newsworthy or funny?

Both!

#22 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-04-12 01:18 PM | Reply

Has Boaz ever set foot in Chicago, San Francisco, New York or LA? I would bet money the answer is "no." Same goes for Portland, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit. Name a metro in a non-confederate state and this rube hasn't the slightest idea.

We are all Americans, Boaz. It's about time you acknowledged that.

#23 | Posted by JOE at 2024-04-12 10:03 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

" Has Boaz ever set foot in Chicago, San Francisco, New York or LA? I would bet money the answer is "no." Same goes for Portland, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit. Name a metro in a non-confederate state and this rube hasn't the slightest idea.

We are all Americans, Boaz. It's about time you acknowledged that.

POSTED BY JOE AT 2024-04-12 10:03 PM | REPLY"

How much time have you spent in rural America? Talking to farmers, owner/operator truck drivers, landscapers, auto repair shops, etc?

I'm not trying to pick at you. You raise a very good point. We are increasingly too quick to stereotype and place people into groups in order to create division.

I wish we could all do better.

#24 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-04-13 02:19 AM | Reply

The 1920 US census revealed most Americans were urban Americans and the rural, Jeffersonian ideal/myth no longer served as the lodestone for most Americans. Some still cleave to it. The country as a whole, however, moved on.

#25 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2024-04-13 04:45 AM | Reply