Hi! Hobbies come in all shapes and sizes some can be as simple as knitting or hoarding collectibles, but some are a little too on the face:

Well hobbies outdoes survivability sometimes by the looks of it. But those are some facts on the occasion of National Gardening Day. So, make sure to work on your lawn this weekend, and let’s get started with our regular:

Today’s special:

F(-) For Mental Health: America’s mental health ratings are plummeting like never before!

An Unhospitable Crisis: The U.S. is seeing an unusual number of rural hospital closures.

Trafficked On Time: Americans are losing time & money sitting in traffic…

Americans are heading into 2026 with self-care on the brain and it’s not in a vague, “drink more water” kind of way. Mental health has climbed up the resolution list fast. According to the American Psychiatric Association, 38% of U.S. adults say they plan to make a mental health–focused resolution, up sharply from prior years signaling that emotional wellbeing is no longer a side quest. It’s the main storyline.

That urgency makes sense when you look at the baseline: national mental health needs have become a glaring issue. As per a report by State of Mental Health in America, over 23.4% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2024, if we’re crunching up numbers that means 60 million people. At the more acute end, more than 14 million adults reported serious thoughts of suicide, not stress or burnout, but crisis-level ideation.

It's no wonder why Americans are talking more with professionals, but the needle hasn’t moved on wellbeing itself. The share of adults seeing a mental health pro has grown with 11% reporting 1–4 visits in 2025, rising from 5% in 2001. At the same time, “excellent” mental health ratings slid from 44% to 28% for millennials and 37% to 23% for Gen Z.

The need is high; but confidence in the system? Not so much. 57% of adults had an unfavorable view of the current U.S. mental health care system in 2025 so the majority isn’t exactly giving it a five-star review. When it comes to funding, Americans are basically saying: this isn’t where you cut corners, while 64% feel the U.S. spends too little on mental health resources.

Zoom in on Medicaid and the tone gets even clearer; people aren’t whispering for support but rather using a megaphone. 76% call Medicaid essential for vulnerable populations; 70% say funding cuts would worsen outcomes, and 64% agree it literally saves lives by enabling mental health access.

America isn’t “discovering” therapy per se, rather people are doing the math and when millions are struggling and faith in the system is thin, mental health stops being aspirational and starts looking like damage control.

Rural hospitals across the United States are increasingly shutting their doors or cutting critical services. Last year saw the closing of 18 rural hospitals entirely or converted to outpatient-only models; consequently inpatient care is disappearing and it's forcing residents to travel significantly farther for emergency and routine treatment. Over 182 hospitals have outrightly closed down in the past 15 years, and closures are accelerating parallel to rising costs.

46% of rural hospitals operate with negative margins, making them vulnerable to collapse. Operating costs are exacerbated by cuts in federal reimbursements under Medicare sequestration and reduced bad debt reimbursement. These rules are estimated to cut down a whopping $650 million from rural hospital revenues resulting in thousands of lost jobs.

Meanwhile, essential care is being whittled down to the bone. Between 2011 and 2023, over 293 institutions ended obstetrics services. Compounding this harrowing situation, is the fact that over 424 institutions have discontinued chemotherapy care between 2014-2023. These factors have significantly narrowed local access to maternal and cancer treatment to zero.

The rural hospital crisis isn’t just about buildings shutting down, the point is the slow eradication of care itself. As of today, 800 rural hospitals are financially at risk, putting entire regions at the cusp of losing their only nearby source of emergency or inpatient care anytime.

According to an analysis by Healthcare Dive, Medicaid accounts for 9% of net patient revenue for the average rural hospital, making even modest cuts existential. Reduction of about 15% in funding would cut more than $1.8 billion from rural hospitals, while a 20% cut would push losses past $2.4 billion, which is enough to tip already-strained facilities into closure. The impact would have drastic effects on maternity care, where nearly half of all rural births are covered by Medicaid, amplifying the spread of maternity care deserts.

At the same time, access to care outside hospitals is eroding just as quickly. The Commonwealth Fund finds that over 40 million rural Americans live in areas with too few primary care providers, forcing patients to rely on emergency departments for routine or preventable conditions. Nearly half of rural residents are uninsured or covered primarily by public insurance, further weakening the financial viability of clinics and hospitals alike. Looking ahead, rural primary care physician supply is projected to meet only about 68% of demand by 2037, suggesting today’s access gaps are likely to widen, not close right away.

For many Americans, traffic has become more than just annoyance, it is time literally slipping through the cracks of the day. Personal travel has simmered down, but delivery trucks and other commercial transportation have upped their volume, plus hybrid work schedules have added to the incalculable traffic patterns during rush hours. U.S. drivers lost an average of 49 hours stuck in congestion in 2025 which was up six hours from 2024 which translates into roughly $894 worth of wasted time per driver. If we’re talking in terms of numbers, then congestion is costing the nation an estimated $85.8 billion in wasted time and productivity.

That’s not just “a few extra red lights” it is two full workweeks per person lost to brake lights and bumper-to-bumper crawling. And it’s happening almost everywhere: congestion got worse in 88 % of the 290 U.S. cities analyzed, as commuters poured back onto the roads and public transit remained relatively underused.

The pain isn’t evenly shared. Chicago drivers now lose 112 hours a year to traffic while Philadelphia saw hours lost jump 31% in a single year. On the other hand, cities like Miami, Atlanta, and DC are quietly creeping toward big-city gridlock; proving congestion isn’t just a coastal problem anymore.

This issue went from highway frustrations to daily life, literally being stretched thinner. In cities that embraced traffic relief mechanisms, the results are already measurable. New York City’s ingenious experiment with congestion pricing, being done for the first in the U.S. offers a litmus test to counter the traffic system in the real world. Since rolling out the plan in January 2025, Manhattan has seen roughly 70,000 fewer vehicles entering the toll zone each day, which means roughly 2 million fewer cars on the road monthly.

The idea was simple and it’s working: put a $9 toll on cars entering the busiest parts of the city to discourage unnecessary trips and fund transit upgrades. It runs on the same logic that other global cities like London and Stockholm have used for years. Besides the modest improvements in travel speeds during peak hours, even noise complaints have gone down by 70% in Manhattan.

Still, pricing isn’t a silver bullet and without better alternatives to driving, commuters are eventually going to feel bounded by juggling between tolls and traffic. If there’s a cost to clog the system, the chances of drivers changing their route or their mode becomes a possibility.

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