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Friday, March 8th, 2024

Millions of Americans Will Soon Lose Internet Access. That’s a Disaster for Rural Health.

Author:     JULIA MÉTRAUX
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     MARCH 5, 2024
 Link: Millions of Americans Will Soon Lose Internet Access. That’s a Disaster for Rural Health.
Stephan:  

The Affordable Connectivity Program, an initiative that the Biden-Harris Administration began and which provided subsidies that made the internet more accessible to 23 million Americans, is about to expire as Republicans in Congress block further funding.  As this article describes this is an issue that goes far beyond social media, and emails. It has enormous implications for telehealth which has become an increasingly important program for rural, largely Republican, areas. And yet these same people will overwhelmingly vote for Republicans and Trump.

Rural America Credit: The Hill

On New Year’s Eve 2021, the federal government launched the Affordable Connectivity Program, which has helped over 20 million American households afford internet access with monthly subsidies of $30 (or up to $75 on some tribal lands). But funding for the program is set to run out in April unless Congress acts by Friday—depriving many of those homes of vital resources, especially access to online telehealth.

People in rural communities are more likely to have issues accessing the internet than those in suburban and urban areas, with nearly 25 percent saying internet access is a major issue. But rural areas also face profound shortages of local doctors, which has increased the importance of telehealth, and the CDC has repeatedly found in the past decade that telehealth is an effective tool in helping rural patients manage chronic health conditions such as home-based rehab after strokes and diabetes. 

While telehealth services existed before Covid, and were used to reach patients in rural areas, pandemic stay-at-home orders increased access to virtual appointments, and more doctors now use internet-based telehealth to see […]

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