Whatever is being done to help people in rural communities gain access to healthcare and healthcare providers, it’s still not enough.

That’s the message state and federal representatives should take from a new report issued last week by the state Comptroller’s Office, which studied 16 rural counties across the state (including several in our region) and found a disturbing and dangerous level of primary care physicians compared to the population.

Among the findings in the report, entitled “The Doctor is ... Out,” was that the residents of these 16 counties combined have half the number of primary care physicians per 10,000 residents than the rest of the state. And this report didn’t even factor in all the rural counties, so the problem is much more widespread and affects far more people than reported.

The problem........

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