Three of the six counties in District 48 — Crawford, Pike, and Spencer — have no hospital. Crawford County residents face a 45-minute drive to the nearest emergency room. Spencer County residents must cross into adjacent counties or into Kentucky for emergency care.

Perry County Memorial Hospital in Tell City — a 25-bed critical access facility — stopped providing obstetric and delivery services at the end of 2023 after delivering only 38 babies that year. Expectant mothers now drive up to an hour. Statewide, 14 OB units have closed in five years, and Indiana ranks 7th nationally in infant mortality.

In Gibson County, Deaconess Gibson Hospital in Princeton has a primary care provider ratio of 3,040 to 1 and a mental health provider ratio of 4,210 to 1 — roughly 3.5 times worse than the Indiana average.

The federal picture is getting worse. New Medicaid work-reporting requirements threaten coverage losses for our most vulnerable residents. Indiana hospitals already absorb $2.7 billion annually in unpaid care, and the Indiana Hospital Association estimates up to 12 rural hospitals are at risk of closure.

Healthcare access in rural Indiana isn't a political talking point — it's a matter of life and death. We need a state senator who will fight for rural hospital funding, telehealth expansion, and provider recruitment incentives. Our families shouldn't have to gamble on geography.