Take Action To Combat Medical Deserts
A free public service for a better community
Good Day Healthcare Advocates
Thank you for reading Healthcare Advocacy and being an advocate for better health care for all of us.
If there are subjects you’d like to see or improvements made, please let me know using the comment button below or email me at healthcareadvocacy1@gmail.com.
Healthcare Deserts Affect 120 Million in the U.S.
A growing number of Americans find themselves living in "health care deserts," areas lacking in the specific infrastructure and services needed to ensure timely access to medicine and care, new data suggests. According to new research from health care and prescription price-comparison website GoodRx, 81 percent of U.S. counties—home to more than 120 million Americans—fall under this definition in some way. This includes those which lack proper access to either pharmacies, primary care, hospital beds, trauma centers or community health centers. (Newsweek)
Over 28 million live over 30 minutes from the nearest hospital.
Over 79 million live in an area with fewer than 2 hospital beds per 1,000 people.
48 million live more than a mile from a drug store making these pharmacy deserts. This is especially hard on patients in areas where there is limited access to transportation. Moreover, 1300 pharmacies have closed since 2021.
Nearly 50 million live over 1 hour from a hospital equipped to handle major traumatic injuries.
For these 50 million Americans, appropriate hospital care may be too far away to survive a serious injury or illness. Research shows that long travel times to the hospital negatively affect treatment and quality of care. And, when accessing a trauma center, every second counts. Doctors often refer to the “golden hour,” which is the concept that a patient needs to receive definitive care within an hour of injury to increase their chances of survival.
I know what fixes this. The Medicare For All Act divides the country up into a number of regions and each region has an administrator and an advisory staff to determine the needs for their region. (section 403). This team has an special projects infrastructure budget (section 601) that allows them to help make sure that medical facilities and personnel can be in place in the medical deserts so people don’t have to go without healthcare. Here is a link to the text of Rep Jayapal’s Medicare For All Act 2025, H.R. 3069 so you can read it yourself.
ACTION
Let’s take a moment to remind our representatives in Congress that 80% of the counties in our country have medical deserts and that 120 million of us are farther from medical care than is safe. Let’s make sure they know that the problem can be fixed with Universal Healthcare like H.R. 3069/S. 1506. You can reach them here, https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/ or
Text SIGN PHNCMN to 50409 (@Resistbot on Apple Messages, Messenger, Instagram, or Telegram) to tell your Congressperson and Senators to call him out for lying. Here is the message If Resistbot says Chat with Me On the Web just type YES and hit return to send the message.
“I am your constituent and I want you to know that according to GOODRX, https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/research/updated-healthcare-deserts, more than 80% of the counties in America contain medical deserts where there is insufficient medical care available. 120 million of us are affected by this. Nearly 50 million of us live over 1 hour from a hospital equipped to handle major traumatic injuries. If they can’t be seen in that first hour after the trauma their risk of survival drops dramatically.
There are things you can do to help improve the lives of your constituents and all Americans. You can enact Universal Healthcare like H.R. 3069/S. 1506. There are provisions for regional administrators to identify these medical deserts and they have special projects budgets to help build up the medical infrastructure to make sure that that everyone has timely access to healthcare. P.S. Universal Healthcare saves America $200 billion yearly in drug costs and $400 billion in wasted overhead.
Universal healthcare costs us less, covers all of us and will make us healthier by providing all of us with access to medical care. 70% of Americans want you to do this. Listen to your constituents.”
Vaccinations Decline & Diseases Increase
As vaccination rates among children continue to plummet, concerns are rising over the potential for infectious diseases to spread rampantly in the coming years and decades. Research published in the medical journal JAMA suggests a continued decline could lead to millions of infections from diseases currently considered under control or eradicated.
The impact of declining vaccination rates is already becoming more visible. As of the middle of 2025, the U.S. is having the worst year for measles in over three decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported 1,288 confirmed cases in 38 states as of July 8.
Other diseases that will reappear are Rubella (German Measles) and Polio. Since the Rubella vaccine contains live virus it is not given to pregnant persons and so they will be at higher risk. Polio is a muscle wasting virus that can kill. (The Hill)
Instead of helping people make sure that they and their children are vaccinated Trump and RFK Jr at the Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Bhattacharaya at the CDC are injecting false doubts into the minds of parents and suggesting they do their own research. The problem is that the easy available information is often loaded with lies on the internet. I’m pretty sure most parents are not reading Journal of the AMA articles or test reports submitted to the CDC. We paid HHS to provide valid health information to keep us as healthy as possible and they are doing the opposite - since we are in Trump’s Alice In The Looking Glass.
P.S. If the government removes vaccines from the approved list - insurance will decline to pay.
I want you to be informed I archived the vaccination Schedules
Here is an archived vaccination schedule I saved. Download it and keep it handy.
Republican’s Limit Med School Plans
If you or your family are well off there is no need to borrow to go to college or graduate school or medical school. If you are not rich then even with lots of scholarships you may still need money to survive. I was unaware that student loans are now capped at $50 k per year for 4 years for graduate and professional schools and that may be way less than is needed for medical school.
I keep hearing from people in rural areas that we need more medical facilities and doctors. Well we just cut that off. Perhaps med school out of the country. Anyway, here is an article about it from a prospective doctor. (MedPage)
Thanks for reading Healthcare Advocacy! Subscribe for free to receive new posts
RESOURCES
Find My Elected Officials
Contact State and Federal Representatives - phone and email
Healthcare Advocacy (Us) Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare - Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
CDC Childhood Vaccination Schedules
Vaccine schedule Archived here
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All, Physicians for a National Health Program, One Payer States, Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision, Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Library of Advice, Specific Advice
Claims Denied
We can use the tool here to protest.
Everyday, I am thankful for your well informed, action oriented posts. I share them with friends and family. Thanks