1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I want you to know about a strong correlation between access to broadband data and chronic disease. Nationwide, 3 million people that live in more than 200 mostly rural counties where in-person care is extremely limited and telehealth is largely out of reach. Those “dead zone” counties are concentrated in regions often pinpointed for having inadequate services: Appalachia, the rural South, and the remote West. Analysis also showed that people who live in these counties tend to be sicker and die earlier than most other Americans. I want you to think about broadband access much as you would a road. Three million Americans have a heard time getting to better health because there is no wideband road available for them. Build the road for them and make sure all of us have broadband access so we can have the telehealth services we all deserve. Thank you. Here is a link to the analysis, https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/dead-zone-sickest-counties-slow-internet-broadband-desert-health-care-provider-shortage/ https://dl-rapidbot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/1/b574/2a95/b5742a95-75c1-4c8b-8fcc-5437b25d7d98.php