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The Importance Of Access To Healthcare

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Healthcare is a critical component of human survival. To sustain a healthy lifestyle, proper healthcare services should be offered based on universality and affordability. The access to healthcare has been, however, far from universal or affordable. For institutional, political and socioeconomic reasons, access to healthcare is characterized by growing disparities between healthcare service recipients. Institutionally, disparity can be witnessed in concentration of premium services in organizations which are better funded, having most qualified care providers and, predictably, having most sophisticated equipment and facilities. Politically, minorities remain most underprivileged social segments by being underserved or unaccounted for based …show more content…

Needless to emphasize, demographic variables factor in as critical determinates of healthcare service not only within one specific population but also across populations. In U.S., healthcare is a complex issue which is no longer defined by lack of specific illnesses or diseases but, more significantly, based on a state of holistic wellness achieved by catering for a broad range of variables including, most notably, high quality education, nutritious food, decent and safe housing, culturally sensitive healthcare providers, health insurance and, not least, clean water and non-polluted air ("Disparities," n.d.). The access to mentioned variables pre-requires, of course, access to broader opportunities from which ethnic minorities, GLBT communities, physically challenged and economically disadvantaged people are historically denied. Moreover, healthcare providers are shown to exhibit bias, prejudice or stereotyping behaviors in administering care for ethnically different patients, a variable which impacts on quality of provided services (Institute of Medicine, 2002). The disparity in healthcare access is brought into sharper focus by statistics showing impact of having (or not) a medical insurance on overall healthcare service quality. Notably, based on a 2011 survey, 57.9%, 19.5%, and 18.1% are shown to be uninsured, having private insurance …show more content…

If anything, Sub-Saharan Africa stands out in almost every healthcare indicator as most underserved globally. The rates of tuberculosis (421 / 100K), HIV, malaria, child mortality (145 / 1000) unmet women contraception needs, early pregnancy (123 / 1000) and maternal deaths (900 / 100K) are world 's highest (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2009). This disparity is consistent to comparable disparities in nutritious food, education, political representation and gender equality, a pattern which only emphasizes comprehensiveness of healthcare

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The government primarily provides Heath insurance for the public Spector, as 60-65% of healthcare spending comes from insurance program coverage such as Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, or Military/Veterans coverage. Those who are eligible to be covered under public insurance, which is roughly 21.1%, are covered under programs such as "Obamacare" named after the current president of the United States, Barack Obama. Even though Obamacare is a huge step in the right direction for healthcare coverage, families are still paying out-of-pocket monthly for health coverage. If you do not fall under the eligibility for any kind of healthcare insurance, you will be left

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In recent times, the subject of health disparities has attracted a lot of attention through the media report in both local and national level.in this essay, the health condition of African American will be discussed in this in the following areas as their health status, barriers to health, diverse population and disparities, and health promotion approach to improving this situation. Health Status: According to the 2014 National Health Interview Survey, 13.5% of all African Americans have less than average health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014a). Averagely, the African-American have higher prevalence of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension compared to the national ratio. Further study reveals that 48

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Expanding accessibility to affordable healthcare insurance is one way in which our country can begin to increase healthcare that is patient and family centered. One reason for existing disparities are the expenses associated with seeking healthcare. For some people, while the actual monthly payments of their health insurance is affordable, patients still face high deductibles or high out of pocket maximums. By making health insurance attainable for the majority of Americans, this alone is only the first step toward reducing some of the existing health disparities. Money alone is a factor that can deter people from seeking preventive treatment and screenings.

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The sexual orientation, race, age, etc., in the US deprived certain groups from receiving equal opportunity in the health care and the health care. Thus, making the disparities in the US health system an

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Although a consensus has not yet been reached defining what is fully considered to be a disparity in health care, statistics prove that ethnic minorities have been receiving a significantly lower quality in health care in comparison to that of the other American citizens. In comparison to that quality received by whites, African Americans receive worse care by 40% of core measures, Asians by about 20%, Hispanics by about 60%, and the impoverished by about 80% of core measures. However, studies are able to provide great insight as to which factors may be causing the large discrepencies in health care between ethnicities and races. In a cross-sectional analysis of 54,968 respondents conducted by California Health Interview Survey in 2001, approximately

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46.8 million Americans were reported as uninsured in 2013, which equivocates to one sixth of the population. Those without insurance have revealed that they risk “more problems getting care, are diagnosed at later disease stages, and get less therapeutic care” (National Health Care Disparities Report) and those insured risk losing their insurance. Inadequately covered citizens are often working-class individuals who simply cannot receive insurance due to uncontrollable inconveniences and therefore jeopardize having medical coverage. In these instances, Americans have a chance of being diagnosed with diseases that they had no opportunity to prevent or could not diagnose them at an early stage of the illness. Patients have suffered unnecessarily due to lack of health care, and “18,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance” (PNHP).

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These two barriers make them experience hardships to see a healthcare provider or to explain their medical issues (Angel and Angel, 2006). How might these factors be overcome? Discrimination is no longer institutional in the U.S. like in the past decades. Therefore, racial and social disparities that create health disparities have diminished. However, there is still a long way to resolving definitively these issues because of prejudices, ongoing social discriminations.

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The leading causes of disability in the region, such as depression and low back pain, were largely consistent with the leading causes at the global level; however, communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria accounted for a larger proportion of disability in Sub-Saharan Africa. The grave burden of disease in Africa stretches the workforce even further and places a huge strain on the health system that in many instances they cannot or barely offer the most essential health interventions. Human resources shortages makes it difficult to plan and implement public health programmes and create new models of care that are required for effectively treating chronic

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While the prevalence of malnutrition (height for age) in areas with an urban population share below 20% is 48.9%, this figure is only 25.3% in areas with an urban population share between 50% and 90%. The same trend is found with weight for age: while the rate is about 26.2% in areas with an urban population share below 20%, the figure is only 9.5% in areas where that share is between 50% and 90%. Differences between urban and rural areas in health care centres and access to health facilities explain the differences in life expectancy and childhood malnutrition. On average, only 46.2% of African children are taken to a health provider: only 41.7% in areas with an urban share less than 20% and 51.2% in areas with an urban share between 50% and 90%. Moreover, births attended by skilled staff are only 38.3% in areas with an urban population share below 20% and 78.0% in areas with that share between 50% and 90%.

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