Please read  “An emergency in rural America” by Eli Saslow.  Rural America is screaming for medical care.  Every presidential candidate should hear those screams and respond to them with programs that address this problem.

“The hospital had already transferred out most of its patients and lost half its staff when the ECO called a meeting to take inventory of what was left.  Employees crammed into Tina Steele’s office at Fairfax Community Hospital, where the air conditioning was no longer working and the computer software had just been shut of for non-payment….

“The staff had been fending off closure hour by hour for the past several months, even since debt for the 15-bed hospital surpassed $1 million and its outside ownership group entered into bankruptcy, beginning a crisis in Fairfax…

“The emergency room was down to its final four tanks of oxygen.  The nursing staff was out of basic supplies such as snakebite antivenin and strep tests.  Hospital employees had not received paychecks for the past 11 weeks and counting.  A technician had gone$100,000 into debt after having an emergency preterm birth, because none of the hospital’s employees had benefits.”

I think that most of us, when we think of medical care, think of the Affordable Care Act and how some Americans want to keep it and others want to kill it.  Regardless of ACA, there is a real emergency that both parties should be aware of and should find solutions for regardless of politics.  Rural America crosses both party membership lines.  I call on all candidates to solve this problem and I don’t mean with platitudes.  I want action.