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Yes. Lots of them. Probably most of them, actually.
From reading posts on this subject here I think many people don't comprehend that "small town" or "rural" living doesn't necessarily equate to "remote" or "off-the-grid" living.
I live in a town of 1000 people. We are the biggest town in the county; the rest range in size from about 10 to about 600. We have a rural hospital and clinic system where residents can visit the local hospital or one of a few hospital-run clinics in the smaller towns for basic medical care, and there are several specialists who are available for appointments at the hospital on a regular basis.
We're also within an hour of a couple of good-sized regional health centers and a major medical center/teaching hospital.
So yes, you can live in a small town and be close to all kinds of medical care.
I've lived my entire adult life in what are known at "frontier" counties, meaning very sparsely populated, as well as being a good distance from major metro areas.
Good health care is definitely available! Specialists usually have "clinic days" meaning they're in the local hospital on the third Tuesday of the month, or every other Friday or whatever... Little band-aid station hospitals will have good, basic diagnostics and don't hesitate to fly emergencies to the nearest trauma center. Not to mention, lesser emergencies like appendectomies, surgeons will fly IN.
I live in SoMD and when I had my very minor (meaning it didn't totally knock me on my ass) cardiac "event" this past summer I was transferred from my local pretty good hospital up the road to DC's Washington Hospital Center's top of the line cardiac unit. As I think was somewhat mentioned rural doctors know when to transfer you out to a specialty place.
A lot of rural areas also have regional centers affiliated with major centers (DuBois, PA Regional Medical Center and Hamot in Erie for example.)
I continue to hear that Obamacare will very likely adversely impact small rural health centers but I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind this. It may be worth researching for someone who is worried about healthcare in a rural setting.
I continue to hear that Obamacare will very likely adversely impact small rural health centers but I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind this. It may be worth researching for someone who is worried about healthcare in a rural setting.
Everything I've read on the subject basically talks about how well prepared medical providers are for Obamacare from a paperwork standpoint, I haven't seen anything suggesting that there will be any impact on the type or level of care available.
Live in more populated areas, like outside of Chicago, there are many small "rural" towns, with driving access to major medical facilities.
However, when you live in a rural area, like Montana, while there are hospitals in major cities, for specialty care, many folks are referred to Salt Lake City or Denver. Even for surgeries that are considered "routine". Any anomoly, and a doctor will refer you to a city doctor. Example, my friend neede routine cataract surgery, done all the time, well, his eye doctor felt that the shape of his eye was "different", and referred him to a specialist in Denver--major plane ride, expense.
A friend works at a 250 bed hospital in St George Utah... the town has grown a lot since she moved there in the 80's...
I think St. George has about 75k population with smaller towns all around.
That said... it is a regional medical facility even with only a 75k population.
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