Green lights flickered on the wireless router in Barbara Williams\u2019 kitchen. Just one bar lit up \u2014 a weak signal connecting her to the world beyond her home in the Alabama Black Belt. Next to the router sat medications, vitamin D pills, and Williams\u2019 blood glucose monitor kit. \u201cI haven\u2019t used that thing in a month or so,\u201d said Williams, 72, waving toward the kit. Diagnosed with diabetes more than six years ago, she has developed nerve pain from neuropathy in both legs.<\/p>\n
Williams is one of nearly 3 million Americans who live in mostly rural counties that lack both health care and reliable high-speed internet, according to an analysis by KFF Health News, which showed that these people tend to live sicker and die younger than others in America. Compared with those in other regions, patients across the rural South, Appalachia, and remote West are most often unable to make a video call to their doctor or log into their patient portals. Both are essential ways to participate in the U.S. medical system. And Williams is among those who can do neither.<\/p>\n
This year, more than $42 billion allocated in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is expected to begin flowing to states as part of a national \u201cInternet for All\u201d initiative launched by the Biden administration. But the program faces uncertainty after Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick last week announced a \u201crigorous review\u201d asserting that the previous administration\u2019s approach was full of \u201cwoke mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n
High rates of chronic illness and historical inequities are hallmarks of many of the more than 200 U.S. counties with poor services that KFF Health News identified. Dozens of doctors, academics, and advocates interviewed for this article unanimously agreed that limited internet service hinders medical care and access. Without fast, reliable broadband, \u201call we\u2019re going to do is widen health care disparities within telemedicine,\u201d said Rashmi Mullur, an endocrinologist and chief of telehealth at VA Greater Los Angeles. Patients with diabetes who also use telemedicine are more likely to get care and control their blood sugar, Mullur found.<\/p>\n
Williams, who sees a nurse practitioner at the county hospital in the next town, said she is not interested in using remote patient monitoring or video calls. \u201cI know how my sugar affects me,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI get a headache if it\u2019s too high.\u201d She gets weaker when it\u2019s down, she said, and always carries snacks like crackers or peppermints. Williams said she could even drink a soda pop \u2014 orange, grape \u2014 when her sugar is low but would not drink one when she felt it was high because she would get \u201ckind of goozie-woozy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connectivity dead zones persist in American life despite at least $115 billion lawmakers have thrown toward fixing the inequities. Federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping, with more than 133 funding programs administered by 15 agencies, according to a 2023 federal report. \u201cThis is America. It\u2019s not supposed to be this way,\u201d said Karthik Ganesh, chief executive of Tampa, Florida-based OnMed, a telehealth company that in September installed a walk-in booth at the Boligee Community Center about 10 minutes from Williams\u2019 home.<\/p>\n
Just over half of homes in Greene County have access to reliable high-speed internet \u2014 among the lowest rates in the nation. Greene County also has some of the country\u2019s poorest residents, with a median household income of about $31,500. Average life expectancy is less than 72 years, below the national average. By contrast, the KFF Health News analysis found that counties with the highest rates of internet access and health care providers correlated with higher life expectancy, less chronic disease, and key lifestyle factors such as higher incomes and education levels.<\/p>\n
Rural residents like Williams paid nearly $13 more a month on average in late 2020 for slow internet connections than those in urban areas, according to Brian Whitacre, an agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State University. \u201cYou\u2019re more likely to have competition in an urban area,\u201d Whitacre said. In rural Alabama, cellphone and internet options are limited. Williams pays $51.28 a month to her wireless provider, Ring Planet, which did not respond to calls and emails.<\/p>\n
Over a lunch of tortilla chips with the savory sauce that had been simmering on the stove, Williams said she hadn\u2019t been getting regular checkups before her diabetes diagnosis. \u201cTo tell you the truth, if I can get up and move and nothing is bothering me, I don\u2019t go to the doctor,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019m just being honest.\u201d Years ago, Williams recalled, \u201cmy head was hurting me so bad I had to just lay down. I couldn\u2019t stand up, walk, or nothing. I\u2019d get so dizzy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lack of access to healthcare and reliable internet in rural areas of the US is a pressing issue that affects millions of Americans, leading to poorer health outcomes and reduced life expectancy. Efforts to address this issue, such as the \u201cInternet for All\u201d initiative, are crucial but face challenges and uncertainties. It is essential to prioritize the needs of these communities and work towards providing them with the necessary resources and infrastructure to access quality healthcare and high-speed internet.<\/p>\n
Millions in US Live in Places Where Doctors Don\u2019t Practice and Telehealth Doesn\u2019t Reach Introduction to the Issue Green lights flickered on the wireless router in Barbara Williams\u2019 kitchen. Just one bar lit up \u2014 a weak signal connecting her to the world beyond her home in the Alabama Black Belt. Next to the router […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.dailynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/US-NEWS-HEALTH-TELEHEALTH-GAPS-1-KHN.jpg?w=1024&h=684&w=1024&resize=1024,683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10139,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137\/revisions\/10139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}