Healthcare is spread thin on Alaskan frontier

BETHEL, Alaska — Americans in some rural places fret at how far away big-city medical help might be in an emergency, or at the long drives they are forced to make for prenatal care, or stitches, or chemotherapy. Dr. Ellen Hodges only wishes it could be so easy. She oversees health care for a population of 28,000, mostly Alaska Natives, here in the state's far west end, spread out over an area the size of Oregon that has almost no roads. People can travel by boat or snow machine at certain times of the year, but not right now.