The Patriot Post® · ObamaCare's 'Medical Deserts'

Remember back in 2012 when the Obama administration released the “Life of Julia” ad? It was meant to promote the essential need for ObamaCare and demonstrate how the law (i.e., Democrats) would take care of Americans from cradle to grave. Fast-forward to 2022, and the devastating effects of ObamaCare policies are vast and getting ever worse.

The ObamaCare salesmen said it would solve everything from health insurance to access to medical care. It has, in fact, exacerbated the “medical deserts.”

“Medical deserts” are areas where Americans don’t have access to proper medical care. According to research provided by GoodRx, 80% of the country is in some sort of medical desert. To meet the criteria of a “medical desert,” residents don’t have access to one of six things: pharmacies, hospitals, low-cost health centers, primary care providers, hospital beds, and/or trauma centers. This is especially prevalent in rural parts of the country, where hospitals and access to them means an hour-plus drive. This is a death sentence to someone with a traumatic health crisis going on.

The states with the highest percentage of their populations in a medical desert are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, and Vermont. The Washington Examiner’s Barnini Chakraborty, who is authoring a series of articles on this subject, writes: “Rural hospitals across the country have been struggling financially for years, prompting the closure of 101 facilities from January 2013 through February 2020, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Another study from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that 40% of all rural hospitals were at immediate risk of closing even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, crippling their practices even more.”

Lack of proper pharmacy access was further exacerbated in cities when CVS and Walgreens had to close their doors due to looting, which is still largely being ignored in the Pacific Northwest. In rural areas, the challenge for pharmacy survival is largely determined by middle men who set the prices of prescriptions. These middle men don’t care about the needs of the community; they care about making money. It’s highly unlikely they will make much off of a small rural pharmacy, and the prices of their products reflect that.

Chakraborty also points out that this horrific state of affairs for the American people “rivals Third World standards.” Was this the great utopian vision that the Obama administration had in mind?

Columnist Gary Bauer observes that the inappropriately named “Affordable Care Act” (a.k.a. ObamaCare) has so badly failed that it is continually getting government funding precisely because it is not affordable. See the Democrats latest inappropriately named “Inflation Reduction Act” for more details.

“Medical deserts” are another kitchen-table issue that real Americans struggle with. The continued touting of the ObamaCare boondoggle in spite of its obvious failure is another example of how isolated and in a bubble politicians are.

The midterms are coming, and the American people are not at all happy.