Episode 93. On the Minds of Rural Voters with Sarah Jane Tribble and Liz Hamel TRANSCRIPT DRAFT
Michelle Rathman: Hello, one and all, and welcome back to a brand-new episode of The Rural Impact. You know this is the podcast where we work hard to connect the dots between policy and rural everything. I'm Michelle Rathman, and I am, as always, so grateful for our return listeners and subscribers. And if you're new to the show, welcome.
We hope that you will join this community and these conversations. Well, as the day that you are hearing this, you know we are just a few weeks away from the results, learning the results, I should say, of the 2026 midterm elections, and there is no short supply of conversation about how things are going to be, impacting rural voters moving forward.
Although we do know that there has been quite a bit of policy issues that have impacted, in a negative way, rural America, and I'm just stating the facts as they are. So today, we are going to have a conversation about what is on rural voters' minds, and we're doing so because KFF and AP, they released their rural voters survey, where they examined, I think, over 2,000 registered rural voters.
And really what they were looking at was taking a look at their views and political priorities of voters in rural areas across the United States. And with that, as a follow-up, there was an article written by one of our guests today, which I'm gonna tell you about in just a moment, and the title of that article is called "Economic Frustration Tests Trump's Standing With Rural Voters," and of course, that was drawn from the result of that KFF and AP poll.
So, as I said, that poll did take a look at over 2,000 rural registered voters by the Associated Press in partnership with KFF, and it found, maybe no surprise to you, broadly negative views on the national and local economies, including from many Republicans. The cost of groceries is top of mind; gas and healthcare rank among the top pain points, as they report for rural voters who were surveyed over two weeks starting in mid-August, and a larger share of than among voters overall say that they are worried about being able to afford groceries and gas.
And, you know, hitting the area where I live as well, as I drive by and see diesel at about 6.50, 6.75 a gallon. So, for this conversation, because I didn't do the poll and I didn't do the reporting, but I am very eager to share the findings of this and the conversation I had just, about a week ago, with Liz Hamel.
And Liz is the senior vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at KFF, where she oversees KFF's polling program, which conducts original survey results, research on Americans' attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the healthcare system, and to help amplify the public's voice in major national debates.
And of course, we have somebody that you know. She's a phone-a-friend, if you will. She's been on this podcast before, and that is none other than Sarah Jane Tribble, Senior Correspondent and the lead reporter on the Rural Health Desk of KFF Health News. So with that said, you know what I'm gonna say, right?
Now is the time to put yourself in that podcast frame listening of mind and tune out that background noise because we know there's plenty of it coming at you. You can take a look at your emails after this conversation, but for right now, I just really invite you to sit back and hear my conversation with Sarah Jane Tribble and Liz Hamel.
Okay, are you ready? I've got my cup right here, you guys. Are you ready? I am, so let's go.
Michelle Rathman: Oh my gosh, this is a really important episode for us to be having today because, you know, as I said, in the introduction, we are- folks are hearing this; you are all hearing this special episode just about two weeks away from the 2026 midterm election, and early voting began weeks ago in many states.
I happened to go out few last Friday, and I got my early voting done. And of course, there's no absence of talks about election security, interference, and the countless cases in front of the courts right now hearing arguments about how and where and who can cast their ballots. And of course, while all this is happening, voters are contemplating the issues that are most important to them and sizing up candidates because we've got more than just, you know, there's a lot of local stuff happening, too.
They're talking with friends, neighbors, engaging on social media, of course, maybe a little bit too much sometimes, and collectively deciding who represents them next. So, although there are eyes on many voting blocks trying to gauge how things might sway or not, there is one voter block in particular with more eyes on them than most, and that, of course, is the rural vote.
So why is that? Nearly seven in 10 validated voters who described their communities as rural- that's 69%- voted for Donald Trump in 2024, while 29% voted for Harris. Now, with November 3rd, 2026, as I said, just a few days away, today's conversation is all about rural voters and what's on their minds at this point in time.
So with that said, I am not the expert on this. I didn't do the research or write the story. That is why we've asked two really, people in the know on this, joining us for a second time or maybe even a third time, Sarah Jane Tribble, you know her from KFF Health News, the Chief Rural Health Correspondent, and we're also really glad to have with us for the first time, Liz Hamel, Senior Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Survey Research at KFF.
To both of you, Liz and Sarah Jane, welcome.
Liz Hamel: Thanks for having us
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. Thank you
Michelle Rathman: All right, so let's go. Liz, I'm gonna start with you because on September 23rd, and I hope folks are following along; if not, we're gonna make sure these links are on our show notes. On September 23rd, KFF and AP- that's the Associated Press- released findings from the Rural Voter Survey. You were a part of that team.
Before we dive into the findings, tell us about the survey: how it was conducted, where did you go, who were the voters that you talked to, and maybe a little bit of an overview of the survey itself.
Liz Hamel: Sure. So, this survey was a survey of over two thousand registered voters who live in rural areas of the country. It wasn't looking at one particular state or any particular race. We were really looking to get a representative sample of voters across the country who live in rural areas. And to do that, not to get too technical on the survey methods, but we use multiple ways of outreaching to voters.
We use a combination of probability-based online surveys, and we actually do outreach through cell phones, text messaging. We try to give people as many different ways to participate in the survey as we could, to really make it a representative sample. And another important thing to know about this survey is that, you know, one of the reasons we're looking at rural voters right now, as you said, they have been a real stronghold of support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the last several election cycles.
Back in 2017, we had done a survey of rural Americans in partnership with The Washington Post, kind of looking at what were some of the issues that led to really strong rural support for Donald Trump in the twenty sixteen election. And so, this was an opportunity to go back to a similar group of voters and see what has changed and what has stayed the same since about a decade ago.
Michelle Rathman: And I would imagine there are, there are some changes, maybe some surprises, maybe not so much. So, you know, Sarah Jane, following the release of the Survey U, along with Allie Swenson, Linley Sanders, both from Associated Press, you wrote a great piece, and I say that, you know, with all authenticity here.
The headline was "Economic Frustration Tests Trump's Standing With Rural Voters," citing the findings of the KFF AP poll. And I mean, I have to say affordability has been a subject that we've been talking about. Just before we started recording today, we were talking about what the fuel prices are in our, in our community.
So, let’s talk about that. Let's get into some of those findings. First up, kind of the deep unhappiness about the economy. What were some of those things, those more, most prevalent themes that you heard?
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. Well, Liz is the polling expert. She knows the data better than me, but just the top-line numbers, you know, people are really upset. Their top pain points are gas, you know, the price of gasoline, the price of groceries, and healthcare costs were really right up there in the same realm. So those were sort of the highlights.
And surprising to us journalists when we were looking at the numbers after they came in was this idea that some of those issues, the ideology issues like gun rights and abortion, were much lower on concerns. So it's really those pocketbook issues that the voters were responding to.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, I noticed that too. That kind of... it was interesting to me, and I had this conversation with a, a colleague of mine saying, you know, "Here's the things that I think the more mainstream media wants us to talk about," and yet that is not what you found was on voters' mind. Liz, can you kind of dial in the numbers a little bit more about the economy and, and, you know, maybe did you see any trends there that would, would be of interest.
Liz Hamel: I think one of the most striking numbers that we saw in this poll was when we asked people in rural areas to rate their communities on different dimensions. One of those dimensions was cost of living. Back in twenty seventeen, about half of rural voters gave their local area a negative rating on cost of living.
That jumped to seventy-five percent in this poll. So that was a twenty-five percentage point increase in the share rating the cost of living in their area negatively. And that, you know, those, that's a really big trend if you know survey research. We're used to things kind of staying pretty similar. And I think that really does, you know, put some numbers around that frustration that Sarah Jane was talking about.
You know, in addition, that cost of living was also the top thing when we asked people what they want candidates to be talking about as the midterm approaches. So sixty-nine percent said it's extremely important for candidates to be talking about the cost of living. More than half also said it was really important for them to talk about healthcare costs, and this is something we see in our national polling as well, is that, you know, healthcare costs are not really separate from the cost of living for voters.
They're really part and parcel of what they are concerned about when it comes to affordability.
Michelle Rathman: You know, Sarah Jane, you and I have been at a couple of different health policy conferences, and you're following, as you do with your work, as I am very, very closely. And there was a section in your piece, and I, may- it was in your piece that you wrote that said, "Healthcare policies go unnoticed. Only 17% of the voters in that survey said that Trump administration's healthcare policies have had a positive impact on their healthcare costs, while 41% said they had no impact, with another 41% saying they had a negative impact.”
And based, aside from just cost, is there any other insight you can glean?
Because policies is more than just the cost of healthcare. Is there anything specific, other citations besides the cost of healthcare that are notable to you?
Sarah Jane Tribble: Well, I was really struck because as you know, Michelle, and we've talked about on this program, the Rural Health Transformation Program has been a big a big touting point for the Republicans, who passed it as part of the big beautiful bill last year. It's $50 billion. The states have their money.
And most people hadn't heard of it at all. So if you've got these rural, registered voters who are, you know, skew Republican and they're not hearing the message about healthcare being saved from the Republicans, that's probably a concern going into the midterms. The other thing, and I don't wanna brush over this, and maybe Liz can add some more depth to it, but the number of people who had heard about changes to Medicaid and were being, you know, they also, it's surprisingly low number of people expecting changes to Medicaid or really aware of what's happening to Medicaid.
And we really found that in our interviews, too. I mean, I talked to one registered voter who had kids who were on Medicaid, and he was kind of, like, unaware of possible changes coming to Medicaid in his state. So the messaging there may be, may be good or bad for Republicans also isn't really getting across either.
Michelle Rathman: I'm so glad that you brought that up, 'cause I was gonna say something at, you know, closer to the end here. But at the end of the day, one of the things that I find, and maybe you have found this too, is that you're asking questions about the, of these really, you know, everyday issues: healthcare, food and groceries, and so forth.
But when it comes to not understanding or not knowing, there's a difference. So not knowing, it just tells me that we are not doing a really good job at making sure that this information reaches people where they are. Have, did you get any sense about where people were getting their information?
I mean, why, why do you think there's such a disconnect or a void?
Sarah Jane Tribble: Well, I'm not sure about that, but I do also wanna mention there's this one person who is in, I think our second story. Her name's Kim Solis, and she is a small business owner in Texas. She was very aware of changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces because her premiums went up, her deductible is now $9,500 a year, and she's very concerned about cost.
And she definitely won't be voting for the Republican Party.
Michelle Rathman: Oh my gosh. So Liz, 2,241 US adults registered to vote in rural areas participated, as you said, in this survey, and one of those findings that most rural voters say they want a candidate, as you said earlier, to talk about costs above other policies. In tangible terms, they want them to talk about it.
What do they, what do they want to hear? Do you get any sense of... I mean, you got the numbers, but what is it that they want them to talk about? What are they waiting to hear?
Liz Hamel: Yeah, I think, you know, this is actually a question that we asked in a recent national poll, and what people tell us is what they are really focused on is the cost that's coming out of their pocket. So they don't really care about the cost to government or how much their employers have to pay.
But really what they're concerned about, and again, it comes back to, the cost of healthcare being so high for many people and also so unpredictable that we ask people what they're worried about, right? The cost of gas might be a day-to-day concern, but the anxiety around potentially having a large healthcare bill is something that's always kind of looming for people.
And you know, just to speak a little bit to the point about people not having an in-depth understanding of the different policies. I mean, as somebody who frequently does surveys of the public, we have to keep in mind a lot of these people they're trying to put food on their tables. They're trying to get their kids off to school.
They are maybe gonna have, as Sarah Jane said, a deep understanding of a policy that is directly affecting them right now. But even if they read the news, you know, or they're, they're sort of gathering some information from what they see on, on social media, they are unlikely to pay close attention to the details of a policy until it's actually affecting them.
And especially in this environment where so many people are struggling with the cost of living until it's really affecting their pocket.
Michelle Rathman: Absolutely. You know, another thing I wanted to mention, oo, is that you guys didn't, like, you left no stone unturned, as they say. So you did talk, you did write a piece also about the Rural MAHA voters see limited health benefit from Trump, and I wonder if you could, either one of you, kind of talk about the key data findings there, because Make America Healthy Again, you know, that has been a very big camp...
That's been something that we've been hearing about for a couple years now, and as a front-and-center issue, but it doesn't seem like it's really taking root, if you will, in rural.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. I mean, I think it's important to point out with MAHA, it's a very broad, diverse group, right? Like, these are folks who are worried about vaccines or red food dyes or fertilizer or nitrates. Like, there could be many reasons to be part of the MAHA movement, so to speak. But the poll found was that about half of all rural voters identified as Make America Healthy Again participants.
And, you know, strikingly, 68% of the people who identified as MAHA said that the healthcare policies of the Trump administration had no impact or a negative impact in their local communities and the health and wellbeing of people in their communities.
Michelle Rathman: Hmm. Liz, what can you tell us a l- you know, in terms of just conducting the survey? I'm very curious about this. When you, you know, reach out to people, are you finding from year to year over year that people are more willing to, to share their insights? Is there any trepidation? I'm just curious about how you're received and, and how you're able to extract this data and get it to us in a way that, you know, doesn't paint a picture that we don't, that we, you want us to see, but just paints the picture of what you're be- what you're being told.
Liz Hamel: Yeah. I will say the, the art and science of polling and survey research has certainly not gotten any easier in the twenty-five years that I've been doing it. I mean, we used to be able to do all of our surveys by landline telephone and reach a representative sample of people. Now, you know, there's so many more ways that people are being asked to give their opinions and, especially in an election season.
So, it definitely has gotten more difficult over time. At KFF, we put enormous resources towards doing this in the most scientific way possible. And so, I don't wanna kind of get into all the technicalities of it, but we are really trying to make sure that we can reach a representative sample of people and not just the people who most are willing and anxious to give us their opinion.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Let me just add, so, part of the job of the journalist here is to call people who participated in the poll, people who gave permission for their phone numbers to be given out. But we don't actually know much about them when we call. And so I would call somebody in Kentucky who, you know, she says she fills out one poll a month.
And I started asking everybody, I was like, "So are you getting inundated?" And the people in Maine, completely inundated. Michigan, completely inundated, but not so much in Texas. I thought that was interesting, the people I talked to. So, it was really interesting, but also it was a real privilege to have these conversations because it's, you know, the honor of being able to communicate what everybody feels.
Because I really think if you get to know humans on a very personal, like one-on-one level, it's a lot easier to understand why somebody may have voted for Trump or may have voted for Biden or Harris or whomever they voted for. Once they start talking and you understand their circumstances, it really draws people together.
And so, I talked to this dad in Ohio who has always voted Republican, and he was really on the fence about if he was gonna vote for Sherrod Brown or John Husted and-- for the senator in this election. And he, you know, was really challenged, but when I called him the first time, he was filling up his truck at the gas station before going to get his kids from, I think middle school or grade school, I don't remember which.
And so he was in the midst of what exactly Liz talked about, and that is that daily juggle of just really trying to put food on the table. And so he fills up his gas tank, he picks up his kids, he gives them the snack, and then he tells me, "You know, it's $45 just to go to McDonald's for a family of four," right?
"And I don't hear the candidates talking about this. And frankly, if they do, I'm not sure I would believe them because Trump promised us prices would go down, and they didn't."
And I kept hearing that sort of sentiment over and over from people I would call, is, we had these promises and they, they haven't come out.
In fact, we can draw a direct correlation with policies we're seeing at a larger level, with the prices at the grocery store, right? And the prices in our gas tank. And for people like Kim Solis in Texas, the prices of their healthcare. So, I say that all just to reiterate what Liz is saying, that people are dealing with a lot on their plate.
And so when it comes to voting, it's really just wonderful that they're gonna go out and vote and understanding the issues around them, I think it's a, it's a big challenge for anybody.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, thank you for that. I just think there's such a kind of an underestimation and just assertions about the rural voter and the issues that are important to them, not different than those, anyone who lives in other communities. And I do appreciate that you are such a good storyteller.
I was looking at the story in your piece with Ed Westick,
Sarah Jane Tribble: Westick, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Rathman: And, you know, just kind of
Sarah Jane Tribble: a veteran
Michelle Rathman: a veteran- a veteran as well. And so, you know, that, that's a, a just kind of a, just his story and just kind of reading about... You wanna tell us a little bit about him? 'Cause for those who didn't read the story, just give us a little bit of snippet about
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. Ed was a real pleasure to talk with, and I'm actually not gonna remember all the details of him, but I know he was Republican. I think registered Republican, if I recall correctly. And he had recently moved to a more rural area, and he works in technical gathering, data stuff, and he had contracts with the defense industry, so his job was doing gangbusters.
He's older; he's former military. In fact, in the pictures he's wearing a "MASH" shirt, you know, the old TV show "MASH." And, the first time I talked with him, he was, you know, he was careful, and then as we kept talking, he, you know... it, it became apparent that he was really concerned about the price of things.
And while he was doing personally well, right? Like, he was okay from a job perspective; he could see prices going up, and he was drawing a direct correlation, like I, like I've heard from other voters, that, you know, "The war in Iran is really causing us problems, and I just don't know where it's going to end."
And that means a little bit different coming from a veteran, somebody who served. And so it was really nice to have his voice and his perspective in the story. He was a bit ambiguous as to whether he was gonna go to the polls, which I heard from a lot of people who said they were Republican. The folks who were Democrats that I talked to seemed very determined to go to the polls.
But the Republicans were a bit more ambiguous. And, certainly this is, you know, a small sample. I'm not gonna say what's happening; no crystal ball here. But you could hear some real frustration. And, just a little bit more. One woman I talked to in Kentucky, she was both MAGA and MAHA, and she voted for Trump, President Trump, all three terms, right?
She, she really is a big fan, and she still thinks he's doing a good job. But she doesn't trust the Senate Republican who's running there, Andy Barr. I've never covered him. I don't know his campaign. But she does not like him for whatever reason. And nothing President Trump says is gonna change her mind.
So she said she was definitely going to the polls, but she was gonna leave that spot blank.
Liz Hamel: And just to put some numbers around what Sarah Jane, you know, picked up on in her interviews, we actually did see in the numbers that voters who are Democrats in rural areas were somewhat more likely than Republicans to say they were absolutely certain to vote in the upcoming election. And that if we looked at Republicans who were dissatisfied with President Trump's performance on the economy, so that was about a quarter of Republicans, they were significantly less excited about voting.
So that phenomenon that Democrats seem more committed to voting in the upcoming midterms, and that for Republicans who are on the fence about voting, it's sort of these feelings about the economy that are dragging them down. That was borne out in the, in the quantitative data. The caveat I will put around this is that the poll was conducted in late August.
The election is still, you know, a ways away, and so any poll is a snapshot in time, but at least we were picking up, on that enthusiasm, enthusiasm gap between Democrats and
Michelle Rathman: Forgive me if I missed this, but was there any questioning around, like, election security? Because obviously that's, like, you know, huge, as I said in the opener. That's... You can't... I mean, I'm someone who consumes media shamefully, like 24/7. That's all I do. I mean, I read everything I could possibly get my hands on for, and for this podcast, 'cause we do focus on policy and quality of life and connecting those dots.
Did you hear any sentiment around, you know, election security, trust in our elections, and things of that nature? Did that play a factor in anyone's decision-making?
Liz Hamel: We did ask a question, not really around security, but around how much confidence people have in the votes-- the vote counting and whether vote counts will be accurate. And interestingly, it was-- confidence was lower in sort of the national vote count as opposed to when we asked about your local election officials.
So about six in ten had a high amount of confidence in their local election officials, but that was only about a third had as much confidence that the votes would be counted accurately nationally. So there is some level of concern there.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Nobody offered it up in interviews, I will say. And, and let me just ask Liz, there were some really interesting numbers on local, like local wellbeing. People seem to trust their local public health directors more when it came to, like, who do you trust for your healthcare? People tended to think their communities, you know, were safe, at a local level.
So, you know, if these, these rural registered voters really still love where they lived, it seemed like to me reading the, reading the poll, and I... That's not surprising to me at least.
Liz Hamel: Yeah, kind of to go back to that big change that we saw in frustration around the cost of living, between 2017 and now, on other areas of rural life in terms of the sense that your area is safe, it's a good place to raise children. Those had not changed. They were still very positive, as they were in 2017.
So it was really where we saw the big change was around
Michelle Rathman: Anything on immigration policies? I'm curious about that too because we’re, in our work, we work in so many rural communities where, you know, obviously ag workers, you know, it's very, very big deal. They've been adversely impacted. I mean, you can go from New York to Nebraska and Washington State and so forth.
Was that a factor in any of the conversations that you had?
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. I'll let Liz get to the numbers, but I did talk to a lovely young, younger voter. She's turned 27 while we were doing the reporting. I talked to her when she was 26, and then she turned 27 before the story went. But she is MAGA, and she really believes in the Republican Party.
She's been doing a deep dive into democracy. And, you know, when I called her back, she wanted to make sure I understood that her beliefs that the country was safer because of what the Republican Party was doing with immigration was from a national level. She has always thought her community, Mount Pleasant, Texas, was safe and okay, but she really believed that, you know, communities like Washington, D.C., were safer than they were before the immigration policy started. And she has a deep faith in God, and she wants all people to be okay and safe.
We did talk a little bit about what her perspectives were around that. But just to segue, she thought her community was safe. She was more concerned about those national numbers changing.
Michelle Rathman: Wow.
Liz Hamel: Yeah. And, in the poll, I mean, we found a pretty even mix on how people perceived the Trump administration's immigration policies and their impact on their community. So it was about a third, a third, a third saying that Trump policies have had a negative, a positive, or no impact on their communities.
We did ask how people thought about the importance of immigrants to their local communities, and we got strongly positive responses, in terms of immigrants who were in the country legally and temporary and seasonal agricultural workers. People saw those types of workers as very important to their economies.
They were more divided when we asked about immigrants who were in the country illegally, and that then it was about split between thinking that they were helpful or not helpful for their, for their local economies.
Michelle Rathman: ll right, in the time we have, a couple of things ‘cause I wanna go back to this question about who they trust. And it was, Sarah Jane, very good to hear because it, if we lose the lo- that local trust, because we do know that trust in the federal government is waning. As a matter of fact, I'll be doing another interview tomorrow that you all are gonna hear in a few weeks from now, just talking about the trust in our, in our federal institutions.
So trusting local, what other maybe kind of highlights, you know, the positivity of this all, because this is not a light subject. It's a conversation that's been dividing our country for far too long. I would love to see a day where we didn't have to do rural versus urban and the divide and all of that stuff.
But, you know, what was the sense that you got in terms of, I mean, numbers don't lie; the data is there- just the sense of any, the sense of hope. I mean, was there a question about, you know, just in general their hope for their future? What, what is your sense there that, that people are... Is there any part of their lives where there's not an anxiety right now, that they're worried about where this is concerned?
Sarah Jane Tribble: I mean, I didn't see that in the poll unless I missed it, Liz. But, you know, in talking to the voters, I didn't hear necessarily people who were distraught. I think I heard people who were very excited- these were registered voters, right? So, you know, they were excited to go to the polls and try to make change in their communities.
In fact, I talked to one guy who didn't appear in any of the stories, but he was just a real pleasure to talk with. He also was a veteran, and he was in Iowa, and he was lamenting the fact that young people weren't going out to vote. He's like, "I'm putting up placards. I want those young people to come out to vote."
So, I heard hope and excitement from a lot of the people I talked to, I would say. But I don't remember an exact question about that in the survey.
Liz Hamel: Yeah. I, I think one of the most positive things I would point to is that, you know, over seven in ten rural voters say their community is an excellent or good place to raise children. You know, over three-quarters rate it as very, as very good on safety. And so, there is, you know, a sense of satisfaction with rural life when we get outside the, the realm of the cost.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah. I'll just--
Michelle Rathman: Go ahead
Sarah Jane Tribble: I just, before we run out of time, I just wanna mention one of the people I interviewed for these stories is Tim Slack at Louis- in Louisiana. I think all the listeners know him. He's a professor of sociology. He studies rural demographics has a book out with Shannon Monnat. And, I think he said it perfectly.
He basically, he said, you know, those prices at the gas, you know, at the gas tank, at the Walmart, those things that are happening on those daily lives, people really are making that connection. And so, they may love their local communities; they may love, you know, their certain, you know, public health directors locally.
They think it's a safe place to raise their kids, but they're extremely frustrated that they see things not going where they wanted them to go over the last few years, especially since the beginning of 2025 when prices have gone up and inflation and gas prices. I just, I can't overstate, you know, when your healthcare premium changes and your, you know, the cost of eggs and milk and the gas all go up, I can't overstate how impactful that I expect that to be at the, at the polls.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah. And I dare I say, you know, we don't have a crystal ball here, but because I am in the industry, we, we know that rural hospitals are going to be... The, world of hurt is gonna come in 2027, and so we have to be watching that 'cause healthcare affordability also has to do with access. And if you don't have a hospital in your community any longer, and that is probably a whole different survey to talk to people about because they're not, you know, that's not something that's usually kitchen table conversations is, is our rural hospital or health clinic financially viable?
Completely different question. Or maybe it is. Maybe you did talk about that.
Liz Hamel: Yeah, I-- we did-- this is actually another-- it wasn't, it wasn't a top issue that people told us they were voting on, but it is another question that we repeated from our twenty seventeen survey, and we did see a big increase in the share of people saying their community doesn't have enough healthcare providers.
So that went from about a third to almost half of people saying their, their community doesn't have enough doctors to serve local residents. And then hospitals went from twenty-one percent to thirty-five percent saying their community didn't have enough. Another area that was acutely mentioned as a shortage was mental health providers.
So six in ten said their community doesn't have enough mental health providers to serve local residents. So, while it's not a big focus of what people are voting on in this election, it is definitely something that people in rural areas are feeling.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah. Sarah Jane, you wanna add something?
Sarah Jane Tribble: Yeah, I would just say it seems to be a burner issue, right? Like when you hear those numbers, especially the mental health numbers, and people, you know, they- they're aware of what's not there in their communities, what's disappearing, and, I think that that will stay with, with people as they move forward.
So, if transformation's going to come, it, you know, it hasn't been seen yet.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, I, heard a, congress, a, woman running for Congress in Texas, and I just heard a little clip that talked about you can't take a trillion dollars from the system, put back a little bit into it, and then expect there to be transformation. And I know you're watching it, and we're watching it as well on this podcast, kind of tracking transformation.
And I think, you know, we c- we could see the numbers go up for p- more people having access and affordable healthcare and less hospitals closing. I'd like to see us go in that direction. I don't know what the future holds, but we can hope. We, one can have hope. I know hope is not a strategy, but still. Oh my goodness.
So Sarah Jane, before we go, where can people find you? I want them to be able to connect with you and read, because part of this is we have to make sure that rural communities have access to the kind of journalism that you put out. And, you know, maybe that's the little bit of our part that we can do here, but where can folks find you and follow your work?
Sarah Jane Tribble: The stories are on kffhealthnews.org, and then also I'm always on LinkedIn
Michelle Rathman: Wonderful. And Liz, what about you?
Liz Hamel: All of our polling is on kff.org, and I'm also on the-
Michelle Rathman: Oh my gosh, I'm so appreciative to both of you. And, you know, listen, we'll, on the other side of this, we'll see how things go, and maybe we'll be having this conversation at the next cycle, and let's see what's changed or what's not.
Sarah Jane Tribble: Thank you for having us
Michelle Rathman: Great to have you here. Okay, for the rest of you, sit tight. We'll be right back.
I've got some closing thoughts. On that you can be sure. We'll be right back.
My thanks to Sarah Jane Tribble, as always, for coming back to join us for another conversation, and also to Liz Hamel. We're so grateful for them bringing us this information. Now, we're gonna make sure that we put the links to the survey and to the article that we're talking about today on our website, and you can find that very easily by going to theruralimpact.com.
And I also just wanna say, if you have not made your plan to vote yet, if you have not sent in your ballot or made a plan to early vote, please think about doing that because we only have, as I said at the top of the show, just a few weeks left. And no matter how you vote, voting is one of the most important things we can do to flex our civic muscle.
Okay, I gotta tell you, we've got some really amazing episodes coming up here in the next few weeks. So we've got our, our show booked all the way through the end of the year, and we're gonna continue having these conversations, but for the next time around, you're going to hear from someone, and I'm not gonna, like, spoil it for you, but I'm just gonna say this is an individual with a great depth of knowledge about what is going on in the federal government and, in particular, the federal government workforce.
So I am really eager to have you hear that conversation coming up in the next few weeks. And with that, I just wanna remind you that if you have not subscribed to us on your favorite podcast channel, we really in- invite you to do that, or you can just go to theruralimpact.com and subscribe there as well.
And while you are there, why not just go to that merch store and pick yourself a little something? Every single purchase helps to keep us being able to fuel these conversations because of your resources and your generosity. So you can find that donate button right on theruralimpact.com as well. With that said, I'm gonna say, as I do every single week, I really encourage you, right now in particular, to take the best care of yourself and, to the best of your ability, all those around you, and a real quick thank you to Brea Corsaro and Sarah Garvin for all their hard work behind the scenes.
Again, thank you once again for joining us, and we will see you soon on a brand-new episode of "The Rural Impact."
