A nurse checks on a one-year-old child during consultation at the Fredonia family in Fredonia, Kansas, on October 19, 2026. In the home stretch of midterm elections, the issues of access to and high costs of US health care are cited by many voters as chief worries, especially in the American heartland. Ninety miles (140 km). That is how far residents of Fredonia, a small town in the central US state of Kansas, must travel for cardiology care in the event of a heart attack or stroke. The crisis could get even more dire if the local hospital -- which provides initial care and coordinates evacuations by ambulance or helicopter -- were to shutter due to bankruptcy, as is happening to more and more medical facilities across the country. "It's definitely a concern," Fredonia Regional Hospital's CEO Johnathan Durrett told AFP, noting that his 25-bed facility, like so many others in today's economy, has to "fight to remain open." (Photo by Zina DESMAZES / AFP via Getty Images)