us hicks currently travel to the big city for specialized medical care, and would continue to do so unless the cities we needed to get to became too dangerous to visit.

if you're suggesting that travel may become extremely tough during hard times, then i have doubts the systems and people required to support those "specialized medical care" facilities would be able to continue to offer such services.

ie: if such travel becomes that impossible, how will folks in places of a population of 50K+ get food and fuel which allow them to even live/work there?

and should it get to the barter stage, what sort of valuable goods would apartment-dwelling city folks have to trade for the necessaries like food/fuel/water?

i would think any large-town/city that big would be in worse shape than a smaller community surrounded by farms and cattle ranches, creeks and ponds, timber of firewood, with areas within walking distance for hunting/fishing/foraging, even if we had to depend on self-medicating, vet-style with vet supplies, as we've done for years.

just saying...