The issue of access to the availability of healthcare services in US
The issue of access to the availability of healthcare services has engrossed the attention of the government of the United States and its healthcare providers. Access to healthcare involves four main variables, including availability, acceptability, accessibility, and affordability. These dimensions influence access to healthcare among the population of the United States. As a consequence, there are several global health concerns associated with these variables. Disparities in access to healthcare services in the U.S have been well documented among the nonelderly Americans. The reason here is a lack of health insurance cover (National Center for Health Statistics, 2016).
Availability is one of the essential elements that influence access to healthcare, particularly within the rural regions of the United States. Lack of availability of health services in rural areas is due to economic disparity and its geographical inaccessibility. For instance, the nearness of patients to healthcare facilities is a significant challenge in most rural settings (Pearcy and Keppel 2016). As a result of constraints of resources in such areas, most of the healthcare services do not reach most of the rural populations and instead get directed mostly in urban areas. Besides, the rural regions experience other challenges such as poor nature of roads; hence availability concern poses a crucial barrier in transportation, hence limiting access to healthcare.
Irrespective of the availability of the required service and the state of infrastructure, geographic location of service remains as a barrier to most rural areas within the United States. A service location can get considered accessible when the facility is less than five kilometers away (Pearcy and Keppel, 2016). In cases of difficulty inaccessibility, people may incur additional costs, such as transport costs.
The urbanization level can also get associated with the utilization of healthcare. Essential services provided in PHC facilities may be dissimilar from those of rural locations. This level of urbanization correlates to the residence access to care and risk factors. Furthermore, these factors correlate with the extent and types of health disparity getting experienced in a community. The healthcare workers working in urban settings are more likely to have access to therapeutic equipment or diagnostics compared to the hospitals in rural regions (Pearcy and Keppel, 2016). Therefore, there are increased privileges in the urban facilities compared to the rural facilities; these privileges can also extend to support from international programs.
Again, access to healthcare is also tied affordability of health insurance. Financial challenges to care, particularly among the low-income and uninsured individuals, have increased in the U.S in comparison to other high-income countries. Pearcy and Keppel (2016) point out that the U.S is ranked last out of the eleven global high-income nations in terms of measures of financial access to healthcare. The little work in health insurance is getting recognized as a crucial motivator of healthcare disparities in the country.
Most regions of American life get subjected to racial and ethnic disparities. For instance, People of Hispanic origin, Black people, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians may disproportionately get represented within the lower socioeconomic positions, poorer-paying jobs, and in lower-quality schools (Barr, 2014). An important mechanism where racism originates and thrives is residential segregation. The vulnerable groups experience increased challenges compared to the whites in getting medical care at a permanent place because of social disadvantages (Barr, 2014). Thus, the nonwhite people report substantial disparities in access and utilization of healthcare in the United States than the native white Americans. This difference ultimately affects the outcome and status of healthcare among these populations.