The pandemic laid bare the racial health disparities in the United States while at the same time shining a light on the urban-rural divide in American health care – something that has long plagued small towns.
Scores of hospitals serving rural areas have closed over the past decade, for a variety of reasons, including low patient volume, workforce shortages, budget cuts and a broader movement to outpatient care. The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated and exposed the inequities in quality of care between urban and rural parts of the country – from access issues to lower COVID-19 vaccination rates among rural seniors compared to their urban peers.
Source: US News