Who will rural voters blame for harmful healthcare changes, policies this election?

nflation and affordability, immigration and international conflicts may be dominating much of the news—and voters’ attention—but healthcare, as always, still matters at the ballot box—perhaps even more so for rural voters.

Michael Shepherd, assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, researches rural residents’ voting behaviors and how they connect to their influential media and information ecosystem amid detrimental changes that affect rural voters to a greater degree: hospital closures, the loss of medical care such as labor and delivery, and changes to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and health insurance.

Shepherd, author of the recently released, “Rural Pain, Republican Gain,” has also studied hospital access using voter data and found significant geographic and partisan differences in distance to emergency care. He looks to his studies, surveys and interactions with rural voters to explain voting behaviors—historically and how they may play out in the upcoming election.

learn more:
https://news.umich.edu/who-will-rural-voters-blame-for-harmful-healthcare-changes-policies-this-election/