Whereas access to quality health care services determines whether individuals in the United States can remain in the communities they call home and whether their children will return to those communities to raise families of their own; Whereas more than 60,000,000 individuals in rural areas of the United States rely on rural hospitals and other providers as critical access points to health care; Whereas rural areas of the United States need quality health care services to attract and retain business and industry; Whereas to ensure that communities in the United States survive and flourish, Congress must address the unique health care needs of individuals in rural areas of the United States; Whereas individuals in rural areas of the United States are, per capita, older, poorer, and sicker than individuals in urban areas of the United States; Whereas the population in rural areas is composed of 10.4 percent of veterans in need of care, compared to only 7.8 percent in urban areas; Whereas the rate of disability for individuals increases from 11.8 percent in urban areas to 17.7 percent in rural counties; Whereas pregnant women are being left without care as 54 percent of rural counties do not have hospital-based obstetrics due to high costs and staffing shortages; Whereas according to the Department of Health and Human Services, rural areas have higher rates of poverty, chronic disease, and uninsurance, and millions of rural Americans have limited access to a primary care provider ; Whereas according to the Department of Agriculture, individuals in rural areas of the United States have higher rates of age-adjusted mortality, disability, and chronic disease than individuals in urban areas of the United States; Whereas the 20 percent of the population of the United States that lives in rural areas is scattered over 97 percent of the landmass of the United States