A3C1

Capella University

November, 2018

Access to healthcare

Healthcare Access Limitation

Limited access to healthcare results from barriers to healthcare which eventually result in unmet health care needs such as lack of preventive and screening services, treatment of illnesses, and preventing patients from needing costly hospital care. A vital rural community is dependent on the health of its population. Access to medical care does not guarantee good health; however, access to healthcare is critical for a population's well-being and optimal health. There are multiple factors that limit access to healthcare in the United States of America. A limited number of people who are insured is one of the factors contributing to limited access to healthcare. Comparing with other developed countries, the United States of America is one of the nations that does not have universal healthcare insurance for its citizens. The government does understand this problem and, in an attempt to find a solution, created and implemented the Affordable Care Act as one of the ways to increase insurance coverage for its population, but by the year 2016, about 32 million people were not covered thus denying them the privilege to access health care services (Kominski, Nonzee, & Sorensen, 2017).

A good number of people are not in a position to meet the medical cost thus locking them from accessing health care services in this country. Even some of those who have medical insurance coverage and high income, sometimes experience difficulties in meeting medical bills thus cannot access medical services because health plans do not even adequately meet all the medical costs. About forty per cent of the people in the United States of America require high-cost treatments and regular medical checkups that the majority cannot afford (Woolf, & Aron, 2013).

Lack of health care facilities and health professionals in rural areas of the country are also some of the factors that result in limited access to health care. In particular, between 2004 and 2014, one hundred and seventy-nine obstetric centers were closed in rural areas in the United States (Hung, Kozhimannil, Henning-Smith, & Casey, 2017). The closure of these centers has limited essential gynecologist and obstetrician services that are very crucial for the health of the population. Similarly, there are a limited number of mental health professionals and substance abuse counsellors in rural areas whose services are core and greatly needed by these citizens. The capacity of health professionals offering these essential services to the population in the rural setting has been limited and in other cases not accessible at all. This leads to limited access to quality health care, and in the best scenario patients might have to wait for long hours to see their medical specialists. (Douthit, Kiv, Dwolatzky, & Biswas, 2015).

Lack of means of transportation is also another factor limiting the access to health services. Healthcare facilities are located far from some rural regions hence patients need to travel to receive medical assistance. Lack of mobility means is a crucial factor to access healthcare, affecting patients who cannot afford these means, mainly those who have special needs such as psychically challenged patients. In urban areas, those people who are low-income earners find it difficult to get a reliable mean of transportation at the time they are going for their medical appointments. This phenomenon results in some patients missing their appointments and also results in the poor management of the diseases, sometimes even when the medical care is available, it is out of their reach due to the lack of transportation. Research has established that distance can be a barrier for people in rural areas but also for poor people living in suburban and urban areas despite the fact they may be close to the hospital centers or health professionals all caused by transportation problem. People in the urban areas in the United States of America drive their own cars thus public transport may not be common in some cities. Poor people living in the cities have the challenge to find means to reach the medical centers thus having a problem of limited access to health care services (Imran, 2015).

Potential intervention approaches.

Increase use of electronic devices and communication gadgets has enhanced sharing of health information. Use of online services to share health information is one of the interventions that can help curb the problem of limited access to health services. Health information from the patients, health professionals and the public, are generally shared on the online platforms thus solving the problem of limited access to healthcare (Moorhead, Hazlett, Harrison, Carrol, Irwin, & Hoving, 2013).

Conclusion

There are various factors that limit access to healthcare in the United States of America. First, transportation in urban areas for low-income earners is one of the factors contributing to limited access to healthcare services. Secondly, some of the patients cannot afford medical expenses thus barring them from accessing healthcare services. Third, a good number of people, although insured, have not enough coverage for their medical expenses. Finally, in rural areas, patients lack some essential medical services such as obstetrician and mental health services. However, with the above factors that limit the access to healthcare services analyzed, there are some solutions coming up, such as telemedicine, which is a technology used by patients without physically reaching the health care center, it has been identified as one of the ways that can be used to address the problem of limited access to healthcare services. Also, in-home health care services which address patients’ health problems in the comfort of their own homes and electronic devices which promote the use of the online platform to share healthcare information are also other potential interventions that have been identified as suitable to offer a solution to the limited access to healthcare services.

Annotated bibliography

Douthit, N., Kiv, S., Dwolatzky, T., & Biswas, S. (2015). Exposing some important barriers to health care access in the rural USA. Public health, 129(6), 611-620.

This article explores some potential factors that limit access to healthcare to the

residents living in rural areas in the United States. Some of the factors cited in this article are a limited number of health professionals and the closure of obstetrician

health facilities. These are crucial factors that cannot be ignored in this study thus causing this article to be very relevant

This article emphasizes the factors that limit access to healthcare services to the low-income population. It empathizes more on some of the people lacking the insurance coverage to meet the medical expenses a factor that limits access to healthcare thus rendering it worth consideration in this study.

Hung, P., Kozhimannil, K. B., Henning-Smith, C., & Casey, M. (2017). Closure of hospital obstetric services disproportionately affects less-populated rural counties. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center.