Rural Health

Before reading "Health Status and Health Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations" I had my own basic idea of how healthy or unhealthy people who live in rural areas were.  Turns out I had no real idea and in fact their study proved that rural people are actually more unhealthy than their metro counterparts.  Though farmers were more likely to have a degree, when they live and work around so many chemicals and dangerous equipment from day to day, it can have a significant effect on their health.  I also knew a lot of rural people smoke, but i didn't realize they do more than city folk.  The last thing I found interesting was the fact that health care access has such a big impact on overall rural health and the article pointed out that the travel time and costs to get to a specialist are a major setback for the rural people.  I know that we are all in an "economic situation" but my only question is if there was more funds available for rural health care, would it improve the overall health standing?