A Proclamation on National Rural Health Day, 2022 – The White House
On National Rural Health Day, we recommit to delivering quality, affordable health care to every zip code in America by making insurance and prescription drugs more affordable, expanding mental health and substance use disorder services, and by keeping rural facilities open and staffed with dedicated doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
We have made progress, but challenges remain. For too long, rural hospitals and clinics have been closing, resulting in trauma patients in rural areas often needing to travel twice as far for care and experiencing a higher rate of fatality compared to Americans living in urban areas. These closures are also damaging to rural economies, where hospitals are often the biggest employers in town. Hunger and diet-related diseases are also more common in rural areas, deepening health inequities. And the COVID-19 pandemic further strained an already strapped system.