Medicaid plays a big role in providing health coverage to small towns

Newell Normand

According to a new study, Medicaid plays a bigger role in providing health coverage to people in rural and small towns than it does in metro areas. The report by Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina NC Rural Health Research Program found that non-elderly adults and children in rural areas and small towns are more likely than those living in cities to rely on Medicaid for their health insurance. As a consequence, reductions in federal Medicaid funding being contemplated in Congress are more likely to cause greater harm to these communities than metro areas. Joan Alker, Executive Director of the Center for Children and Families and a Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy, joins Newell to discuss it.