rural health

The number of volunteer firefighters has dropped sharply nationwide, a trend that appears to be gripping rural Texas communities.

Nearly one out of every 100 people living in Lamb County died of COVID-19. It’s one of the highest death rates in the nation.

Many transgender people seeking gender-affirming and other medical care in rural areas have to educate their doctors about their needs — if they can find supportive health providers at all.

Most states where more than 20% of the population is rural don't have laws requiring some kind of paid sick or general paid time off. A federal COVID relief package temporarily required a minimum of two weeks paid sick leave, but people in rural areas have been left in the lurch since that policy expired at the end of 2020.

Post-COVID care centers have been popping up across the country as millions of Americans struggle with the aftereffects of the virus. The centers are typically in larger cities and can have months-long wait times.

Veterinarian clinics in rural towns have been dramatically declining in numbers for decades. Rural veterinarians often get paid less than urban practitioners, take on more workload and carry thousands of dollars in debt from medical school.

A nurse practitioner is returning to his hometown to provide health care as rural hospitals close and it becomes harder to access preventive care.

As Kansans prepare to vote on the future of abortion, rural western Kansas offers a preview of what life with an abortion ban might eventually look like for the rest of the state.

A new federal program that pays rural hospitals in places like Kansas and Texas to shutter underused inpatient units and focus solely on emergency rooms and outpatient care hasn’t generated much interest yet.

Air pollution has traditionally been measured by the size of particles, which tend to be larger in urban areas than in rural ones. But a new study from the University of Illinois suggests that the toxicity of air in rural areas is just as bad as in urban ones.