Adequate health care represents an issue that has always troubled rural America. From the earliest days of this country, affordable and quality health care has often been harder to find for those who those to live on the farm or in a small town or any place off the beaten path than it has for residents in urban areas. The State of Mississippi has undertaken an intensive program to widen access to health care--and, especially, to preventive health measures--by utilizing fully all available financial resources, including private foundations, by encouraging increased cooperation from our physicians and hospitals in caring for patients insured by Medicaid, and by involving the community in emphasizing the use of health care practitioners in delivering inexpensive but effective support to our rural population.