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POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Human Health
Policy Recommendation 10:
State policymakers can explore and leverage all funding options, including public-private partnerships and federal funding, to plan a long-term strategy to increase broadband access to make telehealth more accessible to unserved and underserved populations.
The Human Health Subcommittee approved this recommendation citing a desire to increase the accessibility of telehealth services and the network strength and reliability required to do so, especially in unserved and underserved populations. States should consider and explore all available funding options to increase broadband access.
The pandemic taught us more about the benefits of technology by forcing us to employ it in ways we had not done before. We should capitalize on those lessons by creating standards or best practices for using technology in a wide variety of settings, always being mindful that we don’t become robotic about Its use. The human touch is so important in providing health care so we need to use technology without losing sight of the human factor.”
— Judge Melanie May, Florida
More than 80% of U.S. counties lack adequate health care infrastructure.1 Low-income areas, communities with a relatively high percentage of uninsured people, rural communities and areas with a large non-white population are significantly less likely to have access to brick-and-mortar health care facilities.2 Improving broadband access and therefore expanding the reach of telehealth services can help close this gap between underserved populations and the care they need.
According to Pew Charitable Trusts, broadband access is increasingly intertwined in the daily functions for modern life and a critical piece of efforts to improve health care. As of 2019, the Federal Communications Commission estimates that 21 million Americans still lack access to broadband.3 Other sources place this number as high as 157 million.4 Promising practices towards increasing access to broadband have been implemented across many states. These practices include:5
Stakeholder outreach and engagement at the state and local level.
Policy framework development with well-defined goals and clear policy direction.
Planning and capacity building that centers education, community engagement and identifying a baseline against which to measure progress.
Funding and operational support for unserved and underserved communities.
Program evaluation and evolution.
States with excess revenue windfalls might consider investing in broadband infrastructure to connect more people to telehealth services where traditional health care is inaccessible. They may further supplement these investments with long-term funding and public-private partnerships to maintain quality broadband infrastructure in the decades to come.
State Examples
In Minnesota, a Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program has invested more than 85 million in broadband infrastructure projects since 2014.6
Tennessee’s Broadband Accessibility Act (2017) works to expand broadband access through three pillars: investment, deregulation and education.7
Additional Resources
The Council of State Governments State Leader Policy Brief: Human Health (2022) — https://web.csg.org/csghealthystates/ wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2022/05/Healthy-States-National-TaskForce-Policy-Brief-Strategies-for-Improving-Health-Equity.pdf
More than 80% of U.S. counties lack adequate health care infrastructure.
Annual Meeting of The Council of State Governments Southern Legislative Conference in Oklahoma City — https://web.csg.org/ csghealthystates/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2022/08/CSG-HealthyStates-National-Task-Force-Human-Health-Subcommittee-MeetingReport-July-2022.pdf
How States are Expanding Broadband Access from Pew Trusts (2020) — https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/03/broadband_report0320_final.pdf
