For the past decades, politicians and insurance companies could carelessly proclaim that the United States had the best healthcare system in the world, but as its major deficiencies have become more apparent many people have found it harder to accept this claim. It is reported that around 59 million Americans are without health insurance and are aware that our health care system does not work for everyone. This has caused a growing recognition that the major problems of rising costs and lack of access constitute a real crisis. However, the search solutions have not been easy or clear cut. The problems of our health care system have been responded to with various makeshift solutions rather than analyzing the system itself as a whole to take…
Lamm discusses the issues in our healthcare. We are starting to see a “brave new world of healthcare”, one where we need to set new standards and obligations. “We shall have to balance quality of life with quantity of life, costs and benefits, preventive medicine versus curative medicine”. Lamm believes that there are two major flaws in our healthcare system one being that 35-37 million of our Americans are uninsured and an equal number are underinsured and second being the high cost of healthcare. He strongly encourages making healthcare more accessible. He repeats over and over how the largest flaw is our lack of access. The problem with having everyone able to access healthcare is that the costs would increase. We want everyone to have healthcare, but we are not willing to pay for it. He also discusses how we must now look at the needs of the entire population. We need to limit the use of certain resources of one individual in order to have enough for the whole population.…
It is so important to implement training for good mainstream practise as carers, whether they are family or professional, may not be aware of the importance of the fact that a change in the health of a person can often cause a change in behaviour. It is vital that carers and all other health professionals are offered training opportunities as often as possible to increase their understanding as carers especially can often just assume that behavioural pattern changes are down to the autism. b) There can be different barriers to access support or services available. These can be physical, or they can be social, or cultural. Physical barriers can be something simple like signs that are unsuitable.…
Cost, Quality, and Access . Sultz and Young (2011) note that there is currently a strong movement within the U.S. health care system to address “the seemingly unresolvable need to correct problems of access and cost without compromising the quality of care” (pg. 1). After viewing the required video Reinventing Healthcare-A Fred Friendly Seminar , discuss how one of the cases presented during the seminar is an example of the tension between cost, access, and quality. Highlight what you consider to be the biggest problem inherent in the system.…
The problem of access reaches beyond the 44 million Americans who lack health insurance-a number that is expected to reach 52 to 54 million over the next 10 years. The growing numbers are of concern because those without coverage tend to delay or forego important preventative and primary care services. Community-based efforts are needed to track health problems and assess unmet needs.…
Over the past decade a rapidly expanding body of literature has demonstrated the existence of healthcare disparities. While consensus has not emerged regarding the causes of disparities, they are generally thought to be related to provider, patient, and healthcare system factors. On the one hand, the current US healthcare system is oriented toward individualized acute care. Yet healthcare disparities by definition are a population level phenomenon. Individuals do not have disparities, groups and populations do.…
Many families across the United States are spending more and more time receiving unpleasant medical testing, chemotherapy treatments, and long waits to see the doctor. What is the most troubling is that many of these families cannot afford the healthcare costs they encounter. Healthcare has become crucial in defining our quality of life. Without proper healthcare many people are not able to maintain a high quality of life. Many families are making crucial choices in regards to paying the rent, buying food, or buying their medicine he/she needs.…
Access to healthcare means the timely use of quality delivered health care. If services are available and there is an adequate supply of services, then the opportunity to obtain healthcare exists, and a population may 'have access ' to services. However, the extent to which a one 'gains access ' also depends on financial, organizational and social or cultural barriers that limit the utilization of services. Therefore, access is dependent on the affordability, physical accessibility and acceptability of services (Pubmed.gov, 2002).…
Thank you for your thought-provoking posts Kik and Maggie. Maggie, you are accurate when you emphasized a clear disparity in healthcare privileges. Kik, what you mentioned about measuring point of poverty is death is a painful message we see now. We complain of simple things, like how it is hot and humid it is in Florida, yet we can address this by having a glass of icy cold water or maybe a trip to the nearest ice cream parlor to cool us off. But in the other parts of the globe, lack of clean water and even food is even harder to come by. This for me is perceived as violent – especially to those who are hungry and thirsty. Not to mention individuals who die from preventable diseases. It is a distressing reality but Healthcare disparities…
People with a higher income can get better access to quality care. People with a high income can get the best health insurance. However, a person with a low income may have a hard time accessing quality care. In Fact, a poor person may not be able to access health care at all. Language is one reason there are disparities in access to health care because some health professionals do not talk to the patient where they can understand. Consequently, the patient is not able to gain the full experience of their appointment with their health professional. The location is one reason there are disparities in access to health care. Some people live too far from a hospital, and they do not get to go the doctor much. For as, if someone lives nearby will go to the doctor…
The central issue of politics in our current generation is no longer about getting ahead; instead it is about simply getting by. In recent years major faults have been exposed in the structure of the American health care system. The debate about health care in the U.S focuses on whether there is a fundamental right each individual has to health care. Is there a moral obligation to help individuals by making health care a universal system in the United States? Many Americans believe health care should be looked at as a condition not a commodity. The American people are becoming uneasy with the current system as prices continue to rise in a down economy. The United States needs health care reform through radical revisions of the current system to provide better care for individuals in the future.…
In an article from the American Journal of Public Health, disparities in health care have been targeted for elimination by federal agencies and professional organizations. With the Affordable Care Act the government is working on reducing disparities in health and medicine by promoting access to equitable and more efficient health care. Yet after five years in the making there is still many issues. Some including the access to care as mentioned prior, access to medical homes and care organizations, lack of preventable medications and cultural competency on these disparities. The American Journal of Public Health also notes that in some states one in five people are living in poverty. (American Journal of Public Health,…
There is debate about what causes and who are primarily affected by health disparities. Health disparities are not just based on race, ethnic and cultural differences. Observations and survey shows that one’s choice of lifestyle limits of benefits his or her access to health care. Reason for disparities in access to health care are many, but one can include that lack of insurance coverage, lack of a regular source of care, lack of financial resources, health literacy, and age are just a few factors that causes health disparities among Americans.…
The structure of the U.S heath care system is certainly a topic greatly debated. Whether it is discussing the cost of health care, poor outcomes, shortages in health care workers, underutilization of other health care workers, the lack of access to care, or growing demand by consumers for health care that offers choice, quality, convenience, affordability and personalized care. It is not a secret that the United States spends more money than any other nation on health care, but only ranks 34th in the world in life expectancy and has higher mortality rates in infants than any other nation that is developed.…
Service availability can affect access of care by unmet health needs, delay in receiving, inability to get preventive services. For example individuals that live in rural areas experience the barrier to healthcare that limit their ability to get the healthcare they need, because in these areas there aren’t any urgent care’s, or the nearest hospital is far away. So these individuals don’t get the proper care that they need, because they don’t have access to the proper care.…