By Liv Osby
Greenville Online
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Deep in the hills, far from towns and hospitals or even a village doctor, the parish nurse for years was often the only health-care provider that folks in the back-country ever saw.
For many rural and poor residents of South Carolina, access is still an issue. They must travel great distances to get health care, if they can afford it, wait to see a busy provider, stand in line at a clinic, or go without.
And with the growing shortage of primary care physicians, coupled with the increasing number of people eligible for insurance beginning in 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act, access is expected to become a problem for many more.