This article by Sarah Jane Tribble first appeared in KFF Health News, republished with permission.

There’s a fight in the nation’s capital that could affect health care for millions of Americans. At stake is a $42 billion infrastructure program and whether it should continue as planned. The money is for states to build high-speed internet — particularly in rural areas where telehealth currently doesn’t always work. 

Chief rural health correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble explains how millions of rural Americans live in counties with doctor shortages and where high-speed internet connections aren’t adequate to access advanced telehealth services. A KFF Health News analysis found people in these “dead zones” live sicker and die younger on average than their peers in well-connected regions.

KFF Health News has partnered with InvestigateTV to tell the stories of residents whose health care falls into the gap. You can view the full investigation here.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.