Do you have easy access to the health services you need in your area? If so, you are lucky; many in rural areas or who can’t afford health insurance grapple annually with lack of access – and their lives are shorter.
Within the United States, access to a doctor is not universal. In fact, the variation from region to region, state to state, and on the local level can be so marked that you could get the impression that health care is a feast or famine proposition.
Time and again, it has been noted in great detail that some states are in what some would characterize as a health care shortage.
In some states, people have poor access to doctors because there simply are not that many doctors available to them. In other areas, the high cost of physicians may make access impossible for those who cannot afford a visit and have no other options. In most cases, it is a combination of those two factors.
This inequality in availability of care has raised a question regarding not just the quality of life for people in these areas lacking good access to doctors, but ultimately if and to what degree it impacts their life expectancy.
This infographic attempts to provide a visual representation of the kind of impact that doctor accessibility has on the life expectancy of populations where access is both easy and hard to find.
See the facts for yourself and then share your findings so that others may see for themselves and share as well.