Rural Health Care Systems

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Abstract
Rural health is a problem of two basic dimensions. These are financial status and geographic location. As to financial status, rural areas are characterized by below-average incomes and considerable poverty. The great majority of the poorest counties in the United States are rural. As to geographic location, rural areas generally have a cluster of factors that are adverse to adequate health services. Along with population densities that range from low to sparse, rural areas usually have a limited tax base, scarce and widely dispersed health facilities, extreme shortages of health manpower, and negative attraction for new manpower. And yet, despite this somewhat grim summary, I think that the outlook for rural health is more encouraging than at any previous time. The most encouraging development on the income dimension is a growing realization that abject poverty is a national disgrace. No country as affluent as the United States can knowingly tolerate

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