Republican leadership has often talked about their love of rural America. As COVID-19 finds it’s way into rural communities, the lack of infrastructure, commitment, and attention to these communities put more lives at risk. Not only because conservatives continue to pump out the message that all of this is a scam — but because in rural communities, too many of the workers who help keep the communities safe are volunteers, and in states that have not expanded Medicaid, the loss of funding can be crippling.
This morning, a former member of the Sam Brownback cabinet in Kansas tweeted:
Money, it seems, matters more than lives. How has this really played out for the rural communities these Republicans rely on to build their base?
From the Lawrence Journal-World:
Because fewer people live in rural communities, a community taxbase doesn’t always provide enough funding for EMS departments. Low wages can often push EMS workers into better-paying health care jobs.
“We do lose a lot of quality technicians to the nursing field because of pay usually,” Swords said.
Nationally, this is no surprise, as the pay level that attracts EMS workers in some community is a big one: zero.
From Wasau Pilot-Review in Wisconsin:
Puls coordinates paramedics for Great Divide Ambulance, which staffs four ambulances around the clock in the 15,000-person county that hugs Lake Superior. The four vehicles cover around 730 square miles, an area three times the size of Chicago.
“I think everybody up here was shocked, because they thought we were rural and removed,” Puls said of the positive test, the first of the county’s three confirmed COVID-19 cases so far.
Unlike cities, which have full-time emergency medical responders on staff at the local fire department, Wisconsin’s rural emergency services typically rely on a patchwork of funding sources and volunteer labor. These rural services face particular challenges in paying for these crucial supplies — when they can find them.
While we talk about the rate of COVID19 numbers in America, it may be hard to know as much of rural America isn’t able to do as many tests as needed or get the services needed to find out. Will we later find out the number continues to increase as deaths and infections are discovered afterward?
Senator Warren addresses this in her call for a bill of rights for essential workers.
The Trump administration and the Republicans who beat their chest on Fox News or in statehouses, address this by saying none of that matters. Money. Money matters more. The Republican plan remains the same: they will reward wealth, while Democratic efforts work to reward work.
