Common concerns for rural AI/AN inhabitants include distance to providers, remoteness, and lack of local specialty care, whereas urban inhabitants may be barred by travel costs and proximity from reservation land that makes them eligible to recieve care from the IHS.

While Urban and Rural AI/AN face different geographic limitations, the underlying cause for both populations' inequities can be traced back to lack of infrastructure, provider retention, and funding for the IHS, the only provider of healthcare that many individuals have access to.