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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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