One of the tenets of Mercer University's School of Medicine (MUSM) is work in rural areas of Georgia. Rural health is a vital issue across the country because rural areas have fewer physicians and transportation available, as well as a higher rate of uninsured people and a higher risk of issues such as diabetes, coronary heart diseases and mental health difficulties, according to the National Rural Health Association.
“Most of the time you have a primary doctor and they’re the only ones that treat you for everything,” Callie Lowery ‘26 said about rural healthcare. “So there’s no psychologists, psychiatrists or OBGYNs or any of that. It’s just primary care and maybe a pediatrician and that’s really it.”
For mental health specifically, there is also a much greater stigma and reluctance to receive care than there is in urban areas. Jennifer Barkin, whose area of focus is mental health and maternal care for rural mothers, shed some light on this issue.
“When you’re talking about stigma it’s also about awareness. If you’re living in an urban city like Atlanta and you’re taking the bus, you might see a poster about Emory doing a new study on anxiety," Barkin said. "You’re exposed to it in that way. But in these rural areas, that’s not possible, because so many of these places don’t even have buses or places where these posters are available.”
The Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities says its goal is to advance health equity and improve the well being of rural underserved populations, and in the past, MUSM has done a lot of influential work in rural areas. MUSM also partnered with its Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to build a better pediatric care system for rural children in Georgia counties.
President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4 this year. Over the next decade, this bill is expected to generate $58 billion in Medicaid cuts in rural areas, according a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, adding to the "ongoing trend of rural hospital closures."
“In Georgia rural communities, two out of five people, or maybe even half in some communities, are on Medicaid,” Michael Kramer, director of the Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities, said. “For pregnant people, like over half of all babies born, the mom is on Medicaid at the time of delivery. So Medicaid is really huge in Georgia.”
“The Medicaid cuts will definitely clog up emergency rooms,” Lowery said. “Because emergency rooms have to see people whether they have insurance coverage or not, and people won’t be able to afford their normal doctors anymore.”
Kramer also brought to light that Medicaid may not be the only thing being cut, and that some projects may also lose federal funding. “In our center there’s a program called South Georgia Healthy Start, which is specifically for pregnant women, postpartum and fathers of newborn children. It won’t be impacted by Medicaid cuts, but it’s a national program that’s funded by the federal government, and while it hasn’t been cut yet, there is concern that it will be, which would be harmful.”
While the Medicaid cuts may have an impact on rural communities, there is not much of a threat to Mercer’s research projects, Kramer said. However, other federal funding decisions may potentially stop some of these projects. Despite concerns over the loss of federal funding, MUSM will continue to do all they can in rural areas.
Geetanjali Angara ‘29 is an International Affairs major at Mercer University and a staff writer at The Cluster. Her hobbies are reading, writing and playing piano. You can typically either find her with a good book or singing a Taylor Swift song.
