A report issued by the Center for Rural Affairs confirms what
most in agriculture already knew: rural Americans are more
likely to be uninsured or underinsured than urban Americans. The
center's researcher, Jon Bailey, presented the report during a
Monday morning meeting at the White House between rural health
care stakeholders and Administration officials. Bailey said with
an economic foundation of small businesses, self-employment, and
low wage work, rural communities are not well served by a health
insurance system that relies on employer-based coverage. He said
many more rural families are forced to purchase from the
individual insurance market where they all too often wind up
underinsured, with coverage that costs too much and provides too
little. Those who cannot afford the significantly more expensive
individual insurance packages must go without or rely on public
insurance. In fact, the report says rural residents were found
to be twice as likely to be underinsured as urban resident; 8%
of the general