Mapping Healthcare Deserts: 80% of the Country Lacks Adequate Access to Healthcare

More than 80% of counties across the U.S. lack proper access to the services needed to maintain health, according to new analysis from GoodRx Research. 

Access to healthcare can be defined as having an adequate supply of services to help people maintain or improve their health. These services span many dimensions of healthcare, including medications, primary care providers, hospitals, emergency services, and community health centers. Access is also affected by socioeconomic factors like affordability, internet access, and health literacy. In an ideal world, everyone would have equal access to necessary health services, and the means to gain access to these services. But this just isn’t the case.

The GoodRx Research team set out to identify areas that lack the proper infrastructure to ensure a healthy community, and understand just how socioeconomic factors play a role in people’s ability to take advantage of healthcare services.

We did this by identifying “healthcare deserts,” or areas across the U.S. where people lack adequate access to six key healthcare services: (1) pharmacies, (2) primary care providers, (3) hospitals, (4) hospital beds, (5) trauma centers, and (6) low-cost health centers. We then looked at how personal and financial barriers can make it even harder to access care in a healthcare desert and perpetuate health disparities.

In our full white paper, GoodRx Research dives into how healthcare infrastructure 一 or lack thereof 一 shapes access to healthcare. Through our research, we identified seven key findings:

1) More than 80% of counties across the U.S. lack adequate healthcare infrastructure in some shape or form. That means that over a third of the U.S. population lives in a county where there is less than adequate access to pharmacies, primary care providers, hospitals, trauma centers, and/or low-cost health centers.

2) Over 40% of counties are pharmacy deserts, where most people have to drive more than 15 minutes to reach nearby pharmacies.

3) Over 9% of counties are primary care provider deserts, where there aren’t enough healthcare professionals to provide primary care for most of the local population.

4) Over 20% of counties are hospital deserts, where most people have to drive more than 30 minutes to reach the closest hospital. On top of that, nearly 47% of counties have fewer than 2 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

5) Over 40% of counties are trauma center deserts, where most people have to drive over an hour to reach a hospital equipped to handle major traumatic injuries.

6) Over 45% of counties are low-cost health center deserts, where most people have to drive more than 20 minutes to reach a federally funded community health center.

7) Healthcare deserts are more likely to affect those who face additional barriers to access, such as lower income, limited internet access, and lack of insurance. Together, these barriers can further widen disparities in health outcomes.

Read our full white paper, “Mapping Healthcare Deserts: 80% of the Country Lacks Adequate Access to Healthcare” here.

*This is the author’s independent analysis of data extracted from the following source: National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, Inc. (NCPDP); January 2021 – December 2021, dataQ® Pharmacy Database v3.1.

Why trust our experts?

Written by:

Amanda Nguyen, PhD

Dr. Nguyen is a health economist with a passion for creating actionable knowledge out of data. An expert in economic modeling and econometrics, she works to investigate and demystify pressing issues in healthcare.

Edited by:

Tori Marsh, MPH

Tori Marsh is GoodRx’s resident expert on prescription drug pricing, prescribing trends, and drug savings. She oversees the GoodRx drug database, ensuring that all drug information is accurate and up to date.

Reviewed by:

Sara Kim, MS

As a research analyst, Sara uses data to analyze drug pricing and healthcare trends. Before contributing to GoodRx, she worked in a startup and built a location recommendation engine for its users.

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