Our own Rural Policy Research Director, Jon Bailey, was one of two dozen people sitting at a table in Washington, D.C. this morning with White House officials. Jon and other rural advocates as well as several farmers were there to talk to Nancy-Anne DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, and other Administration officials about the health care challenges that rural America faces.

The forum was webcast, and video of the discussion will be available on the website of the White House Office Health Reform later this week.

At the meeting, Jon presented a report released by the Center today. According to the report, rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than urban Americans. Many more rural families are forced to purchase from the individual insurance market where they all too often wind up underinsured, with coverage that costs too much and provides too little. Those who cannot afford the significantly more expensive individual insurance packages must go without or rely on public insurance.

The report also found:

• Rural residents are twice as likely to be underinsured as urban residents
• 8% of the general population depends on individual policies with reduced benefits and high deductibles, but 33% of farmers and ranchers rely on such policies
• 25% of non-corporate farms and ranches carry medical debt and 25% of that number report that medical expense "contribute to their financial problems"
• Approximately 50% of rural employees work for small businesses, as compared to 37% of urban employees, and small business employees are twice as likely to be uninsured

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Mr. Bailey, for his part, is back on an airplane, headed back to the home office in Lyon, Nebraska.