Kristen Purcell, PhD | SSRS
Sarah Stephens Winnay | ARCHANGELS
Susannah Fox | Peer-to-Peer Healthcare Expert
The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), part of the Trump Administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill, allocates $50 billion to strengthening rural preventive health initiatives, advancing technology, telehealth and remote patient monitoring in rural communities, and expanding rural healthcare workforce training and capacity.
There is no dedicated caregiver benefit or stipend built into the program, yet it is critical to recognize unpaid caregivers as a central part of any rural healthcare system. Rural communities across the country face persistent barriers related to access, workforce shortages, and continuity of care, with unpaid caregivers filling in as a necessary extension of the healthcare system. Caregivers are essential to supporting chronic disease management, medication adherence, appointment follow-through, and use of preventive and digital services. When caregivers are strained or unsupported, clinical and technology investments are less effective.
A recent nationally representative survey of n=2,012 U.S. adults conducted by SSRS, ARCHANGELS and Susannah Fox on the SSRS Opinion Panel included a subsample of 728 unpaid caregivers. As part of the survey, caregivers completed ARCHANGELS’ Caregiver Intensity Index, shedding light on how they are experiencing caregiving and its many dimensions.
We looked back at the data to see what it told us about rural caregivers:
- 15% of unpaid caregivers nationally live in rural areas. Given the survey’s overall estimate of 93 million American adults providing unpaid care to at least one person in their lives in the past year, that equates to roughly 14 million caregivers living in rural communities across the country.
- Rural caregivers are demographically unique in some ways. When compared with caregivers living in urban and suburban communities, rural caregivers skew older (59% are age 50 or older), are more likely to be non-Hispanic White (75%), and are less likely to be employed full-time or part-time (47%)
- Most important, rural caregivers score lowest on the “feeling supported” dimension of the Caregiver Intensity Index. Feeling supported is a key driver of caregiving intensity and an important lever advocates can pull to keep caregivers in the “yellow” and “clear” intensity ranges and out of the “red.” Rural caregivers being less likely than urban and suburban counterparts to feel supported signals a clear opportunity for investments that will strengthen rural healthcare ecosystems.
As states begin to plan their RHTP investment strategies, supporting unpaid caregivers should not get lost among the vast set of issues needing to be addressed. A supported and engaged rural caregiver community does not just improve patient care and overall community health, it will undoubtedly make RHTP investments in areas like telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and preventive health programs much more likely to succeed.
Methodology
This study was conducted for ARCHANGELS by SSRS on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform. The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is a national, twice-per-month, probability-based survey. Data collection for this study was conducted from January 17 to January 21, 2025, and from February 7 to February 10, 2025, among a total sample of N = 2,012 respondents. The survey was conducted via web (n = 1,952) and telephone (n = 60) and administered in English (n = 2,012).
The margin of error for total respondents is +/- 2.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results among the n=728 caregivers, the margin of sampling error is +/- 4.3 percentage points. All SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus data are weighted to represent the target population of U.S. adults ages 18 or older.
