The health and wellbeing of the population depends largely on its access to and utilization of healthcare services. Access to healthcare refers mainly to the timely utilization of the available health services to promote the best possible outcomes of health. Access to healthcare is important because it enables patients as well as physicians to control acute episodes, prevent illness and exacerbations that would cause complications in health problems. Access to healthcare has dimensions that include availability, acceptability, approachability, affordability, appropriateness, and accommodation of health. Therefore, this essay paper examines the issue of limited access to healthcare and ways of addressing it in practice.
Limited access to healthcare is a healthcare issue that affects the health and wellbeing of the diverse populations. Limited access to healthcare refers to the untimely utilization of the available healthcare services by the population to promote their best possible outcomes of health (National Academies of Sciences et al., 2018). Limited access to health contributes to widen health disparities in a population alongside negative outcomes when compared with communities or populations with enhanced access to health (Dassah et al., 2018). Limited access to healthcare is a prevalent issue in the US. For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2016 that 2% of the adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years did not access the usual preventive care, 21% did not receive their required well-child checkups, and 12% did not go for a dental visit over the past 12 months (Black, 2016).
Limited access to healthcare arises due to a number of reasons. According to Dassah et al., (2018) limited access to healthcare is attributed to health-related factors such as disability. People with disabilities experience factors that hinder their access to their needed healthcare such as acceptability, affordability, availability, and geography (Dassah et al., 2018). Socio-demographic characteristics such as income level and residents of rural areas also contribute to limited access to healthcare. For example, the majority of rural residents have been shown to have low incomes when compared to urban residents, which affect the access to and utilization of healthcare services. Similarly, urban residents often have more healthcare providers per capita when compared to rural residents, affecting the access and utilization of healthcare services. Language barriers due to ethnicity also contributes to limited access to healthcare services among the American populations. For example, individuals from ethnic minorities with low or no English proficiency affect access to care as well as quality healthcare in the state. Inadequate understanding by the patient contributes to poor compliance, patient satisfaction and underuse of healthcare services (National Academies of Sciences et al., 2018). The other causes of limited access to healthcare include race and ethnicity, health insurance coverage and literacy levels among the population. The most likely causes from the above include geographical location, income and poverty level, race and ethnicity, and health status such as disability status.
Limited access to healthcare is a prevalent issue facing a significant proportion of the population in America. Accordingly, people from ethnic minorities, low socioeconomic background, with disabilities, and lack insurance coverage experience the problem of limited access to healthcare services (Collaborators* & del Pozo-Cruz, 2017). The issue of limited access to healthcare services is important to nursing and health in general due to a number of reasons. Firstly, limited access to healthcare often lead to unmet health-related needs in a population. The consequence of failing to meet the health needs of the affected or vulnerable populations include worsened health outcomes, health complications and increased spending in health (National Academies of Sciences et al., 2018). Limited access to healthcare also contributes to delays in the ability of a population to receive their needed care, which affect the realization of positive health outcomes. Enhanced access to healthcare lowers preventable illnesses, complications and hospitalizations. However, limited access implies that the population will be disproportionately affected by a disease increasing the risk of premature mortality, unnecessary hospitalizations and financial burden of disease management (Vecchio et al., 2018; Kominski et al., 2017; Alcalá et al., 2017). Due to these reasons, limited access to healthcare should be prioritized to promote positive health outcomes in
Struggling with online classes or exams? Get expert help to ace your coursework, assignments, and tests stress-free!