Community Problem Report
The issue of healthcare access is definitely an important that we must take into consideration. Even families that have Medicaid seem to have limited access to certain benefits. A research conducted in 2002 by a group of doctors explaining that even people with Medicaid did not really have access to whichever doctor that they preferred. This reason was because not all hospitals or clinics accept Medicaid. And for this they had to settle with the plan that they may have qualified for or given to them by their supplier. This issue is also something that we should look into as well. Medicaid should be able to be accepted in any hospital or clinic. Every patient should have the same treatment as those with a regular healthcare plan. In the articles the doctors go on and explain that almost sixty percent of patients with Medicaid have a restricted plan. Which as stated above only have limited access to certain benefits. In the article it states that California has three groups of companies that supply healthcare plans. Which are County Organized Health System, Two Plan counties, and Geographic Managed Care. These are low profit organizations that help people out by supplying Medicaid to low income families in California. And what these companies do is that they provide Medicaid to families and they actually have the choice to choose their plan. And also are able to change it whenever they wish.
Another step that we can take is help out the Hispanic communities get familiar with the American healthcare program. A research was conducted on Hispanics and just exactly how many of them had some type of healthcare access. The reason that we need to do this is because Hispanics are the largest group in the United States that do not have healthcare. There are many other reasons that this occurs. Whether it is them not having the proper knowledge of where they can go apply for Medicaid to the clinics or hospitals not speaking their language. But it mostly came down to their place of origin, and how long they have been living in the United States. All these issues affect these people when it comes down to them getting any medical help. They go on about this issue and also go on and say that Hispanics that know English seem to get better medical attention. They also start talking about other Latin American races and the percentage of them that get medical attention. The races that they researched were Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and South Americans. The research goes on and explains to us that out of the different races Puerto Ricans were the ones to have the highest percentage in visiting doctors, ambulance usage, and prescription medicine. Reasons for this might have been that they had some type of knowledge about healthcare through their country. Or they might just have known how to speak English. The fact that the Hispanics are one of the lowest ones in health insurance is an issue that they address is an important issue. They go on by saying that this can turn out in a very negative outcome if we do not provide these families with the proper health insurance. Reasons for this being might be that they do not have enough money to afford a health insurance plan. Whether it be that they need to pay their bills first instead.
Healthcare access will only continue to be a limited resource. The cost of health insurance will continue to rise. Thus leading to companies to either raise up the prices of their healthcare plans or might not even supply it to their workers. According to AARP’s articles “What’s at Stake without Health Care Reform” they go on and say that every year prices in healthcare plans continue to go up. To the point where the companies workers cannot afford to pay for health insurance. Do to the fact that they do not make enough money to afford health insurance. They also explain to us that over the past eight years the cost of providing a family with healthcare benefits has doubled. This is an issue that needs to be taken care of. As the prices go up less and less workers seem to have health insurance. This can cause them to end up in medical debt when they get really ill and have to go to the hospital. The AARP’s article continues on by saying that automobile makers add an extra fifteen hundred dollars more to their cars. Just so they can be able to provide their employees with health insurance. This is causing small business to not offer any health insurance because the price will only continue to rise. Most of the families that do not have health insurance are families that are employed. And most of these families will not go out of their way to buy health insurance somewhere else. This can cause many things to happen the article says that a client with health insurance will live longer than that one who does not. This can also result in companies not providing a retiree health package. Making the worker work longer and put more wear and tear on their body.
Things that should be done about this problem are that the government should focus on this topic rather than other issues. The fact that we would rather fix foreign matters first than problems within our states is ridiculous. The Hispanic groups need to have a healthcare plan. They cannot be living without any health benefits they need to able to visit the doctor for checkups whenever they want. Things that should be done about getting families healthcare are opening clinics that are free or do not charge a lot of money. Have Medicaid acceptable anywhere the patient wants to be attended at. And have something similar to Medicaid where any family with a low income can apply for it and no matter what the case is hey get accepted. We need to stop rejecting people they have a right to be treated properly by the proper medical attention that everyone else gets. This is an important issue that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. Prices of health insurance will only continue to rise and more and more families will have to deny this benefit. The fact that the Hispanic groups are the ones that have less medical attention than the other races is a serious problem. There needs to be more bilingual workers at hospitals that can help these Hispanics groups. They need to be informed and have access to this healthcare information. There are many things that can be done to solve these issues. The only problem is when will someone step up and do something about it.
Citations
· Harper , P.R, & Pitt, M.A. (2004). On the challenges of healthcare modelling and a proposed project life cycle for successful implementation . 55(6), 657-661.
· Weinick, R.M, Jacobs, E.A, Stone , L.C, & Ortega, A.N. (2004). Hispanic healthcare disparities: challenging the myth of a monolithic hispanic population. 42(4), 313-320.
