Rural residents have a hard time finding nursing homes nearby; often must place loved ones in facilities far away

Marlene Kennedy visits with her husband Earl in the nursing
home. (Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson)

Rural residents are having an increasingly hard time finding nearby nursing homes; that often means having to put loved ones in nursing homes far away where it will be more difficult and costly to visit.

More than 260 rural nursing homes across the nation have closed down in the past three years; those that stay open sometimes limit the number of residents who receive Medicaid, because it doesn't pay as much as private insurance. That often narrows options even further for people searching for a nursing home, Eli Saslow reports for The Washington Post.

Saslow illustrates the trend with the heart-wrenching portrait of a senior couple in rural Broken Bow, in central Nebraska. Marlene Kennedy was forced to put her husband Earl, who has Parkinson's disease, in a nursing home more than an hour away. Bad weather meant that their daughter couldn't drive her to see him for 10 days—the longest they had ever been apart in their 63-year marriage.

On the way to visit Earl, Marlene talked about her worries and how much she hates being separated from him, Saslow reports. "This drive always feels long," Marlene said. "You spend your whole life tied up right next to somebody, and then you don’t get to be there for the hardest parts. It doesn’t seem natural."