James Carroll, the White House Director of National Drug Control Policy recently visited our District to meet with Governor Parson and me. We discussed the impact of drug addiction and how to expand rural health access in our community with law enforcement professionals and health experts. Since 2010, over 100 rural hospitals have closed in the United States, some of them in our area. Rural hospital closures are often associated with an increase in an area’s mortality rate – in short: people die when hospitals close. This is simply unacceptable.