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Rural residents can't access health care in a county full of doctors - The Daily Tar Heel <br />https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/01/rural-health-orange-county-0124[2/19/2019 8:06:31 AM] <br />draft and submitted a finalized plan with GoTriangle for November 2018 that cut the section, as well as all <br />instances of the word “rural.” <br />The draft suggested a number of options, including expanded bus routes and partnerships with ride-share <br />services and vanpool programs. Both reports included vanpool programs, but the final draft limited this to <br />northern Durham County. <br />Coggin said that even with increased transportation, many people will not have adequate insurance <br />coverage. North Carolina is part of a minority of states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage under <br />the Affordable Care Act, but he sees this as a potential solution. <br />“If we're able to close the health insurance coverage gap in North Carolina, it's going to give access to a lot <br />more people in our rural areas, and it's going to help stabilize our rural health care system,” Coggin said. <br />The UNC Center for Latino Health is one program seeking to resolve the issue of language barriers. While <br />it doesn’t operate in rural Orange County, the center provides specialized care for Spanish-speaking <br />patients in Chapel Hill. <br />“If a Latino patient is looking for a doctor and doesn't speak a single word in English, that's a big barrier,” <br />Program Manager Claudia Rojas said. “We have some pre-med undergrad students learn a little more <br />Spanish with the Latino community so they seem more confident speaking Spanish with the community. <br />This is a big plus for non-English-speaking patients.” <br />Coggin said another potential remedy to this issues is the expansion of telehealth programs. By allowing <br />patients to connect to doctors online, they can work around language and transportation barriers. He <br />admits this is not a perfect solution — many areas across the state lack reliable internet, and web programs <br />can’t deliver all the same treatments that a doctor can in person.