Hello! I hope everyone is doing well. I recently went on vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee! One of the activities I did on vacation was visiting Cherokee, North Carolina to see the Native American historical sights and learn more about their culture and history. As we were driving through town, I observed that I did not see any health care facilities or pharmacies. The area also seemed to be low-income. This was upsetting to see, as I believe healthcare should be accessible for everyone despite their status. The closest thing I saw to a pharmacy was a convenience store that sold basic medicine like Tylenol and cough syrup. I wanted to do some research on this and gather statistics to see if this is a problem in other parts of America and how they are handling it. In 2023, 11% of adults had no normal source of healthcare, 11% had difficulty paying medical bills, 28% had either delayed or did not get healthcare due to costs and 45% were worried about their ability to pay medical bills. Furthermore, 1 in 4 adults (28%) have reported delaying or forgoing medical care/attention. I think that it is unfair that low-income areas have restricted or no access to healthcare. One solution I think would help with this problem is to establish more mobile health care units. A mobile health care unit is a type of healthcare delivery model. It is a specialized vehicle designed to deliver medical services to rural or underserved areas. They offer a wide variety of services such as screenings, mental health support, vaccinations and more. Mobile health care units are highly effective in providing healthcare and considered to be cost-friendly. I think that this will be a viable temporary solution until proper healthcare facilities are able to be constructed. In addition, one of the main roads was blocked off due to snow and harsh weather conditions. Because of this, the alternate path to reach the destination added an extra hour to the total travel time. This was concerning because what if someone needed to reach the hospital in an emergency? There were no hospitals in the area that I could see, and the main road was blocked off which could create problems for first responders and put people’s life at risk. This emphasizes how important easily accessible public healthcare is within communities. I hope to change this in the future by donating not just food items, but simple medical items such as band aids, gauze, simple ointments and more. Thank you for reading and remember to help your community!