Barriers Impeding Access to Healthcare
Access to healthcare services in United Sates has undergone transformations over the years. The Medicaid and Medicare are two forms of healthcare plans that aid United Sates citizens to acquire quality healthcare services. There are several factors unrelated to insurance that impede access to healthcare. These factors can be grouped into eight categories: namely irregular source of care, structural barriers, lack of healthcare providers, ethnic and racial marginalization, age, educational and awareness barriers, poverty and language barriers (Mandal, 2010, August 16).
Lack of financial resources is a barrier to access to healthcare to Americans who are ethnically and racially marginalized (Barr, 2011). More often racial and ethnic minorities are not given enough financial resources or support to enable them access quality healthcare.
This limits the amount of healthcare services they can receive.
Irregular source of care.Another category of factors that limit access to quality healthcare is the Iirregular source of healthcarelimitsacces to health care.(Barr, 2011).Define irregular source of care here.Compared to their white counterparts, ethnic or racial minorities are less inclined to have the capacity to pay a visit the same medical specialist all the time and have a tendency to depend all the more on emergency rooms and clinics. Without a standard source of quality healthcare, people find it more difficult to obtain their medical prescriptions as well as to attend to their necessary appointments with their respective physicians.
Structural barriers. Define structural barriers clearly.Thirdly, there are quite a number of structural barriers that play a huge role in hindering access to quality healthcare. These barriers decrease the probability of an individual effectively making and keeping their appointments with physicians. Examples of these structural barriers include:
1. Failure to get convenient appointment times with the physicians,; Discuss this more, with citations. What is convenient? What are some conflicts people usually have with appointment times?
2. lack of transport that people can use to access healthcare services and long waiting hours prior to seeing a physician. These components decrease the probability of an individual effectively making and keeping their appointments with physicians. Discuss this more, with citations. How many people lack transportation? Where do they usually live? Then, you can discuss race/ethnicity, as well.
Lack of Healthcare Providers. Absence of healthcare providers is another big concern thatalso inhibits a patient's ability to acquire medical services (Mandal, 2010, August 16). Include definition of healthcare provider shortage area (HPSA) or medially underserved area (MUA). In regions where minority populaces are concentrated , for example, inner cities as well as rural territories, the number of healthcare personnel as well as medical facilities is often inadequate. The ratio between the people within a given place to medical practitioners available is too high to an extent that the patients will not get quality healthcare since the few practitioners are forced to attend to a very large group.
Ethnic and Racial Marginalization.
Age. Age of a patient can affect one's access to healthcare. Older patients are frequently living on a fixed salary and can't stand to pay for their medical services . Aged individuals are likewise more inclined to experience transport issues or experience the ill effects of travelling while they seek medical services. They might as well lack mobility which renders them incapable to go for medical checkups or to honor their medical appointments . With 15% of older adults in the U.S lacking internet access, they are likewise less inclined to benefit from the information available on the internet.
Education and Awareness Barriers. Lack of education and awareness has been noted as one of the main barriers to access to quality health services (Mandal, 2010, August 16). Low level of education will affect dissemination of healthcare information such that the target group will not benefit in any way. Lack of education makes it hard for such people to see the sense in going for health insurance. Furthermore, they cannot understand the importance of being insured. On the other hand, lack of awareness makes it hard for critical healthcare information to reach every citizen in order for them to benefit from the healthcare insurance plans in place
Poverty.
poverty inhibits the ability of people access education. Consequently, their access to critical health information is affected since their lack of education makes it hard for them to understand certain information. Even if the health insurance is affordable to all and sundry, their perception about health might force them to opt for alternative options in order to remain healthy while at the same time cutting on healthcare expenditures.
Language barriers. Language barriers can also be highlighted to be among the factors thatalso affect access to healthcare services (Mandal, 2010, August 16). Poor English dialect abilities can make it troublesome for individuals to comprehend fundamental data about health conditions or when they ought to visit their specialist. It is quite hard to pass critical information about health to people who do have adequate command of the language being used to deliver the information. Therefore, regardless of the new insurance policies put in place, citizens who do not have adequate command of English will find it hard to be well informed.
On the other hand, age of a patient can affect one's access to healthcare. Older patients are frequently living on a fixed salary and can't stand to pay for their medical services . Aged individuals are likewise more inclined to experience transport issues or experience the ill effects of travelling while they seek medical services. They might as well lack mobility which renders them incapable to go for medical checkups or to honor their medical appointments . With 15% of the aged in the U.S lacking internet access, these people are likewise less inclined to benefit from the information available on the internet.
Lack of education and awareness has been noted as one of the main barriers to access to quality health services (Mandal, 2010, August 16). Low level of education will affect dissemination of healthcare information such that the target group will not benefit in any way. Lack of education makes it hard for such people to see the sense in going for health insurance. Furthermore, they cannot understand the importance of being insured. On the other hand, lack of awareness makes it hard for critical healthcare information to reach every citizen in order for them to benefit from the healthcare insurance plans in place.
Finally, poverty inhibits the ability of people access education. Consequently, their access to critical health information is affected since their lack of education makes it hard for them to understand certain information. Even if the health insurance is affordable to all and sundry, their perception about health might force them to opt for alternative options in order to remain healthy while at the same time cutting on healthcare expenditures.
Barriers That Needs to be Addressed
Three main barriers that should be addressed as first are lack of healthcare providers,ethnic and racial marginalization and poverty. No matter how much we improve our insurance plans in order to suit every citizen, lack of adequate healthcare providers can limit possible achievements. It is worth noting that having enough healthcare providers will be very instrumental in ensuring that every citizen gets quality healthcare services. This will aid in reducing the patient-physician gap that is hampering the efforts the government and related organizations are making in their quest to offer better medical services.
On the other hand, ethnic and racial discrimination is affecting delivery of quality healthcare to all citizens equally. Discrimination based on one's ethnic or racial background renders such individuals disadvantaged and makes them lack access to quality health care services. Furthermore, the same group of individuals often find themselves not receiving medical services on time because of they are marginalized. The government should ensure that no citizen is marginalized based on their ethnic or racial background. Both blacks and whites should be given equal opportunities and access to quality healthcare services. More medical centers should be built in areas where such communities live as well as ensuring that the same medical centers have enough and qualified medical practitioners. This will ensure that these people will have access to quality healthcare services.
Thirdly, poverty, being one among the main challenges facing most people should be addressed in the best way possible. The government and other organizations should try as much as possible to economically empower every individual and/or household. The government can set up interest-free loan plans where the needy can get loans that do not need them to pay interest. This will ensure that they do not opt out of the already affordable health insurance in place but rather embrace it as a way of remaining healthy and safe.
Feasibility of the "Next Steps"
Among the next steps that can aid in addressing these challenges include offering quality education to every citizen, training more healthcare personnel and posting them to marginalized zones, building more medical centers in marginalized areas and offering every citizen equal access to healthcare services regardless of ethnic and racial background. First, it is very feasible for the government to offer quality education to every citizen by allocating more funds to setting up of more schools as well as helping children from economically disadvantaged families to pay for their fees. There are sectors that need little money since they are much advanced or are not very critical. A percentage of funds that could otherwise be pumped to such sectors can be redirected to the education sector to finance for education of the needy pupils.
Furthermore, the government can partner with different organizations, institutions and established NGOs who are willing to finance education for the needy pupils. Such pupils can be given bursaries or even fees waivers in order for them to acquire classroom education. However, political affiliations may affect the allocation of funds since such steps might require that a bill be passed before it can be signed and made official. Such moment is when the government faces challenges from the opposition.
Secondly, it is also feasible for the government to allocate more funds to train more medical personnel who can later be posted to marginalized areas. The more medical personnel we have the better the quality of healthcare services since the medical practitioners will not be compelled to handle large group of patients. In conjunction with this measure, a percentage of the funds allocated to health can be used to build more medical centers in marginalized areas. There is no need to build more medical centers in urban centers yet the rural areas have very few facilities and as a result the health centers are always concentrated or overburdened. Allocation of funds can be tricky since some political leaders feel that the same sectors to be sacrificed need funds just as much as medical sector needs them.
Thirdly, every citizen should be given an equal access to healthcare services regardless of ethnic and racial background. Every citizen has an equal right to quality healthcare services. Whether the concerned is a black or white, access to quality healthcare services should not be predetermined by their background. However, one barrier that can inhibit this is the fact that ethnic and racial prejudice is so rooted in our culture to an extent that our political affiliations are influenced by the same issues