White House outlines progress, plans
It’s been six months since the White House announced its new Rural Council. We know health care impacts everything from a community’s life expectancy to its economy, but we didn’t know how the new council planned to impact rural health across America. [caption id="attachment_1485" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="McKalip at the White House"][/caption] So the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Roads magazine asked Doug McKalip, White House senior policy advisor for rural affairs, to fill us in on the council’s plans. “Most people would probably be surprised to know that we still have a divergence in mortality rates in America between rural areas and metro areas. It’s certainly a goal of the council to help ensure that an American’s life expectancy doesn’t have to be determined by location,” he said. Check out the rest of his answers to NRHA’s questions here. Hear directly from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who serves on the White House Rural Council, during NRHA’s Rural Health Policy Institute Jan. 29-Feb. 1 in D.C.