From his perch as director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health, Dr. Dan Derksen talks about the health care system the way wildfire crews talk about dry brush. The danger doesn’t arrive all at once, it builds quietly in places already under strain.
In rural Arizona health care systems operating on thin margins, the stress fractures are usually visible long before the rest of the state notices them.
“I don’t think it’s quite hit people yet,” Derksen said. “But we’re going to see a pretty substantial reduction in the number of people who have health coverage. And that’s going to affect everyone.”…