scholarly journals Forum: equity in access to health care. Introduction

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 1159-1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Travassos
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Unethical Practices ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Equity In Access

The Introduction outlines this issue's special Forum on equity in access to health care, including three Articles and a Postscript. The Forum represents a continuation of the debates raised during a seminar organized by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2006, in collaboration with UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, the WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. The authors approach health care access and equity from a comprehensive and contemporaneous perspective, introducing a new conceptual framework for access, in which information plays a central role. Trust is proposed as an important value for an equitable health care system. Unethical practices by health administrators and health care professionals are highlighted as hidden critical aspects of inequities in health care. As a whole, the articles represent a renewed contribution for understating inequalities in access, and for building socially just health care systems.

Health Care Access and Quality Index and Financing of Health Care Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-90
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Stankunas ◽  
Mark Avery ◽  
Richard Olley ◽  
Gaery Barbery
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Quality Index ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Access And Quality

scholarly journals Health Care Access Among Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers, 31 States, 2017-2018

2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492199668
Author(s):  
Winifred L. Boal ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
Sharon R. Silver
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
The Past ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Access To Health

Objectives Essential workers in the United States need access to health care services for preventive care and for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19] or other infectious or chronic diseases) to remain healthy and continue working during a pandemic. This study evaluated access to health care services among selected essential workers. Methods We used the most recent data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2017-2018, to estimate the prevalence of 4 measures of health care access (having health insurance, being able to afford to see a doctor when needed, having a personal health care provider, and having a routine checkup in the past year) by broad and detailed occupation group among 189 208 adults aged 18-64. Results Of all occupations studied, workers in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations were most likely to have no health insurance (46.4%). Personal care aides were most likely to have been unable to see a doctor when needed because of cost (29.3%). Construction laborers were most likely to lack a personal health care provider (51.1%) and to have not had a routine physical checkup in the past year (50.6%). Compared with workers in general, workers in 3 broad occupation groups—food preparation and serving; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; and construction trades—had significantly lower levels of health care access for all 4 measures. Conclusion Lack of health insurance and underinsurance were common among subsets of essential workers. Limited access to health care might decrease essential workers’ access to medical testing and needed care and hinder their ability to address underlying conditions, thereby increasing their risk of severe outcomes from some infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Improving access to health care for all workers, including essential workers, is critical to ensure workers’ health and workforce stability.

Poverty, Welfare Reform and the "Culture of Wealth"

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrill Singer
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Access To Health

An important shift has occurred in anthropology over the last 30 years. A notable expression of this change is seen in the contemporary anthropology of poverty. As dramatically contrasted with the anthropology of poverty of an earlier era, when the notion of a "culture of poverty" had currency within the discipline, current thinking has been significantly influenced by a structural approach that seeks to understand poverty and its health consequences in terms of what has been called "structural violence." Structural violence was introduced into the lexicon of anthropology to label relations of inequality that are so grave in their effect that they can be seen as a form of sanctioned violence (like the structuring of access to health care in terms of possession of health insurance or the exclusion from quality housing, or even any housing, on the basis of ethnicity and social class). Unlike street violence or intimate partner violence, both forms of physical harm that are criminalized, structural violence is legal and hence unpunished. Indeed, perpetrators, if they are corporate heads, may be rewarded with stock options and other perks that boost their salaries to obscene levels relative to the prevailing wage system in society generally. Structural violence has been publicly denied its true nature as a direct assault on the health and well-being of the poor and other marginalized populations because access to health care, access to housing, and access to food are not legal rights.

scholarly journals Access to Health Care and the Out‑of‑Pocket Burden of the European Elderly

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 1961-1970
Author(s):  
Veronika Krůtilová
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Care Burden ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Health Care Burden ◽  
Care Systems

Provision of access to health care is a desirable feature of health care systems. Access to health care is caused to be restricted whether out‑of‑pocket burden is too high. The paper focuses on the European elderly with restricted access to health care and evaluates their health care burden and determines factors affecting the burden. The data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe from the fifth wave is used. The methods of descriptive and multivariate analysis are applied. A linear regression model with a bootstrapped method is used. The results showed that inequalities in access to health care exist. Unmet need is a critical issue in Estonia and Italy. The highest burden is found in Estonia, Italy and Belgium. Chronic diseases and limitation in activities significantly contributes to health care burden. Expenditure on drugs, outpatient and nursing care have a significant effect on the burden. The effect is found to be insignificant for inpatient care. Income and the employment status is a preventing factor.

scholarly journals Barriers to accessing health care services: A qualitative study of migrant construction workers in a Southwestern Indian city

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maija Santalahti ◽  
Kumar Sumit ◽  
Mikko Perkiö
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Access To Health

Abstract Background: This study examined access to health care in an occupational context in an urban city of India. Many people migrate from rural areas to cities, often across Indian states, for employment prospects. The purpose of the study is to explore the barriers to accessing health care among a vulnerable group – internal migrants working in the construction sector in Manipal, Karnataka. Understanding the lay workers’ accounts of access to health services can help to comprehend the diversity of factors that hinder access to health care. Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews involving 15 migrant construction workers were conducted. The study applied theory-guided content analysis to investigate access to health services among the construction workers. The adductive analysis combined deductive and inductive approaches with the aim of verifying the existing barrier theory in a vulnerable context and further developing the health care access barrier theory. Results: This study’s result is a revised version of the health care access barriers model, including the dimension of trust. Three known health care access barriers – financial, cognitive and structural, as well as the new barrier (distrust in public health care services), were identified among migrant construction workers in a city context in Karnataka, India. Conclusions: Further qualitative research on vulnerable groups would produce a more comprehensive account of access to health care. The socioeconomic status behind access to health care, as well as distrust in public health services, forms focal challenges for any policymaker hoping to improve health services to match people’s needs.

scholarly journals Access to health care for people with disabilities in rural Malawi what are the barriers?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Harrison ◽  
Rachael Thomson ◽  
Hastings T. Banda ◽  
Grace B. Mbera ◽  
Stefanie Gregorius ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Randomised Control Trial ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Health Care Accessibility ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Lung Condition ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Introduction People with disabilities experience significant health inequalities. In Malawi, where most individuals live in low-income rural settings, many of these inequalities are exacerbated by restricted access to health care services. This qualitative study explores the barriers to health care access experienced by individuals with a mobility or sensory impairment, or both, living in rural villages in Dowa district, central Malawi. In addition, the impact of a chronic lung condition, alongside an impairment, on health care accessibility is explored. Method Using data from survey responses obtained through the Research for Equity And Community Health (REACH) Trust’s randomised control trial in Malawi, 12 adult participants, with scores of either 3 or 4 in the Washington Group Questions, were recruited. People with cognitive impairments were excluded. Each of the selected participants underwent an individual in-depth interview and full recordings of these were then transcribed and translated. Findings and discussion Through thematic analysis of the transcripts, three main barriers to timely and adequate health care were identified: 1) Cost of transport, drugs and services, 2) Insufficient health care resources, and 3) Dependence on others. Other barriers identified were distance to a facility, which was most hindering for the participants with a chronic lung condition, and unfavourable health seeking behaviour, whilst ‘time’ was found to be a common underlying factor. Attitudinal factors were not found to influence health care accessibility for this cohort. Conclusions This study finds that health care access for people with disabilities in rural Malawi is hindered by closely interconnected financial, practical and social barriers. There is a clear requirement for policy makers to consider the challenges identified here, and in similar studies, and to address them through improved social security systems and health system infrastructure, including outreach services, in a drive for equitable health care access and provision.

scholarly journals The Stories We Tell about Refugee Claimants: Contested Frames of the Health-Care Access Question in Canada

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Beatson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Frame Theory ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Refugee Claimants

A contested issue is the extent to which refugee claimants should have access to health care in Western host countries with publicly subsidized health-care systems. In Canada, for a period of over fifty years, the federal government provided relatively comprehensive health coverage to refugees and refugee claimants through the Interim Federal Health Plan (IFHP). Significant cuts to the IFHP were implemented in June 2012 by the Conservative federal government (2006–15), who justified these cuts through public statements portraying refugee claimants as bring- ing bogus claims that inundate the refugee determination system. A markedly different narrative was articulated by a pan-Canadian coalition of health providers who characterized refugee claimants as innocent victims done further harm by inhumane health-care cuts. This article presents an analysis of these two positions in terms of frame theory, with a greater emphasis on the health-provider position. This debate can be meaningfully analyzed as a contest between competing frames: bogus and victim. Frame theory suggests that frames by nature simplify and condense, in this case packaging complex realities about refugee claimants into singular images (bogus and victim), aiming to inspire suspicion and compassion respectively. It will be argued that the acceptance of current frames impoverishes the conversation by reinforcing problematic notions about refugee claimants while also obscuring a rights-based argument for why claimants should have substantial access to health care.

scholarly journals “I was trying to speak to their human side” coping responses of Belgium’s undocumented migrants to barriers in health-care access

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-267
Author(s):  
Dirk Lafaut ◽  
Gily Coene
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Coping Responses ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Access To Health

Purpose Undocumented migrants experience major legal constraints in their health-care access. Little is known on how undocumented migrants cope with these limitations in health-care access as individuals. The purpose of this study is to explore the coping responses of undocumented migrants when they experience limited health-care access in face-to-face encounters with health-care providers. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted multi-site ethnographic observations and 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews with undocumented migrants in Belgium. They combined the “candidacy model” of health-care access with models from coping literature on racism as a framework. The candidacy model allowed them to understand access to health care as a dynamic and interactive negotiation process between health-care workers and undocumented migrants. Findings Responses to impaired health-care access can be divided into four main strategies: (1) individuals can react with a self-protective response withdrawing from seeking further care; (2) they can get around the obstacle; (3) they can influence the health-care worker involved by deploying discursive or performative skills; or (4) they can seek to confront the source of the obstacle. Research limitations/implications These findings point to the importance of care relations and social networks, as well as discursive and performative skills of undocumented migrants when negotiating barriers in access to health care. Originality/value This study refines the candidacy model by highlighting how individuals respond on a micro-level to shifts towards exclusionary health policies and, by doing so dynamically, change provision of health-care services.

The Importance of Telemedicine in Global Health Care

2017 ◽  
pp. 860-880
Author(s):  
Kijpokin Kasemsap
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Global Health Care ◽  
Acceptance Model

The chapter explains the challenges facing health care systems; the overview of telemedicine; the technological devices of telemedicine systems; telemedicine and chronic diseases; telemedicine and technology acceptance model (TAM); the applications of telemedicine in the oil and gas industry; and the importance of telemedicine in global health care. Telemedicine brings the health care value through its ability for the remote visits with patients, immediate access to health care professionals, real-time access to health data, and health monitoring capabilities. Telemedicine is an effective health care measure that can manage the new and affordable technology with the potential to deliver the convenient and effective care to patients, and provides an alternative way for the health care organizations to deliver the essential health outcomes. The chapter argues that applying telemedicine has the potential to increase health care performance and gain sustainable competitive advantage in global health care.

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