Us Poor, Fat, Old, Sick Folks in Rural America

The Associated Press, which once upon a time was a respected news gathering cooperative, apparently has a low opinion of people who live outside of cities in America.

The 25 percent of Americans who live in rural areas are poorer, older, fatter and sicker than their city neighbors. They live farther from doctors and have a harder time getting to appointments, many depending on neighbors or church volunteers if public transportation doesn't exist.

Being one of those who recently moved from "the city" to breath the fresh country air and eat fresh country vegetables, and enjoy a somewhat lower cost of living, I of course am shocked to learn that I am now poorer, older, fatter and sicker than I was 18 months ago.

I guess I am older. That couldn't be helped.

The writer, Kristen Wyatt, gives no attribution to her statement. We are to take it at face value. (Two paragraphs later there is a citation of an outfit called the National Rural Health Association, based in -- yup, you guessed it -- Washington, D.C. Maybe this is where Ms. Wyatt got her "opinion" for this news report.)

The story, written about some people living in Walsenberg, Colo., is a puff piece designed to win sympathy for passage of ObamaCare. In fact, it's worse than that. It's a propaganda piece for expanding the scope of ObamaCare so that physicians are ordered to serve rural areas.

You see, the poor people in Walsenberg, Colo., are 30 minutes away from good doctors! They have no public transportation! The horror! The horror!

When I lived in Tulsa County, it would take me 30 minutes in traffic to reach my personal physician. I had to drive my own car. I suppose if I was desperate I could've bummed a ride.

Advocacy journalism is now the norm, and I'm sure many people will be outraged that ObamaCare doesn't go far enough to transform our health care system into something more closely resembling the late, great Soviet Union.

But give it time, Ms. Wyatt. I'm sure that under socialized ObamaCare the government will very soon begin telling general practioners and specialists where, geographically, they can and cannot practice medicine.

Why they might even tell us impoverished old, fat, sick rural Americans that we have to move into the city where nice concrete block apartments have been reserved for us.