Leadership
Rick Boucher
Honorary Chairman
Bruce P. Mehlman
Co-Chairman
Jamal Simmons
Co-Chairman
Tracey Sawicki
Executive Director
The Internet Innovation Alliance is a broad-based coalition of business and non-profit organizations that aim to ensure every American, regardless of race, income or geography, has access to the critical tool that is broadband Internet. The IIA seeks to promote public policies that support equal opportunity for universal broadband availability and adoption so that everyone, everywhere can seize the benefits of the Internet - from education to health care, employment to community building, civic engagement and beyond.
Here you'll find convenient research items culled from the best broadband data sources. If you need to find bite-sized talking points on a tight deadline, you're in the right place. We've already done the hard part for you!
In Rural Areas, Average Distance to Pharmacies 10 Miles
In about 1,000 rural communities, the distance between pharmacies is greater than 10 miles.
Number of Physicians per Person in Rural Areas Much Lower than Urban Areas
In urban areas, the ratio of primary care physicians to 100,000 people is 105 on average, while in rural areas that rate is about 65 per 100,000. Physicians that do practice in rural areas tend to be located in counties near urban areas or concentrated in small rural population centers.
Rural Residents More Likely to be Uninsured than Urban Residents
20 percent of rural residents under age 65 are uninsured, compared to 18 percent in urban areas. In some remote rural areas, the number of non-elderly uninsured is 27 percent.
More Rural Residents on Medicare and/or Medicaid than Urban Residents
In rural areas, 31 percent of the population has either Medicare or Medicaid as their primary source of coverage; in urban areas, that figure is just 25 percent. The rural-urban difference is greatest in the South and West with those areas having even higher rates of public coverage.
Rural Black Adults Have Disproportionally High Obesity Rates
Obesity rates among rural black adults ranged from 38.9 percent in rural small metropolitan counties to 40.7 percent in remote rural counties, compared to 34 percent for the nation.
27.3 Percent of Rural Adults Suffer from Hypertension
27.3 percent of rural adults suffer from Hypertension, compared to 22.4 percent or urban adults.
Primary Care Physicians in Rural Areas Report Higher Concern over Drug Use and Teen Pregnancy
When questioned, rural physicians reported greater concern than urban physicians over diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer; 87% of rural physicians reported that diabetes was a primary concern, compared to 82% of urban physicians.
Telemedicine Bridges Hispanic Health Gaps
According to the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, telemedicine has the potential to bridge the gap in health care quality for Latinos by reducing health care costs and increasing access to health information in Spanish to reduce language obstacles that can impair care quality.
Broadband access [puts] people in touch with online medical resources that can save $670 per household per year in health care costs. That is 25 percent of the median American family’s total out-of-pocket costs for health care, according to the Benton Foundation.
In 2008, a Forrester Research survey found that more than half of U.S. online consumers never heard of Internet-based health monitoring services that help manage chronic conditions, or home-based monitoring solutions for aging, ill, or disabled family members.