Barriers Of Health Care Access For The Aging Hispanics

In this discussion, a Hispanic or Latino group is considered. While the statistic is not available for the city of Cleveland, in Ohio this group represents a 3.7% of the total population as of July 1, 2016 (USCB, 2018). The Hispanic/Latino group represents people from Cuba, Latin America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Caribbean and other Spanish cultures, regardless of race (Juckett, 2013). While a treatment plan in hospitals is the same for all the patients, the perception varies in different ethnic groups or races. Thus, a health care provider need to be aware of Hispanic/Latino cultural beliefs and implement this knowledge into a daily routine.

     Illegal immigrants usually hold jobs that have bad conditions and worse pay.  Oftentimes, these jobs are found in sectors such as agriculture, construction, food-handling and manufacturing (Dwyer).  Unfortunately for the illegal individuals who acquire these jobs, they have no access to comprehensive health care, though their line of work tends to demand it.  Although illegal immigrants are consequently strapped for cash, many of them will not visit primary care physicians for fear of being deported.  This sets up a vicious cycle: individuals get sick yet ignore the signs.  When illnesses get remarkably worse and are too severe to treat at doctors' offices, the individuals then go to emergency rooms, where the cost is considerably greater.  More often than not, the immigrants cannot afford to pay their hospital bills.  The cost is then covered by the medical institutions and tax-payer dollars (Wolf).  While some argue that illegal migrants do not

Limited access to health care for Spanish Speaking populations is due to inability to afford services, difficulty with transportation, dissatisfaction with services, language barriers and inability to understand treatment plans. Health indicators of Spanish Speaking populations suggests that health outcomes continue to be behind other population groups, they also remain below goals established by Healthy People 2010 (Butler, Kim-Godwwin, & Fox, 2008). The US Spanish Speaking population represents a particular vulnerable subset of US Hispanics that have lower-income, less education, poor perceived health status and poor access to the health care System (Dubar & Gizlice, 2008).

Financial barriers to access health care are common in a low-income family when they are uninsured or underinsured. Many uninsured and undocumented immigrant received federal and state health care coverage. Latinos and African American are the ethnicities that are disproportionally get affected. Limited access to a doctor when they are sick, taking non-prescribed medication and holding off recommended treatment is only some of the problems they encountered (Carrillo et al., 2011).

These religious and spiritual influences play a major role in the Hispanics health, illness and daily life. In much a similar manner, the Native American Indian family adopts the cultural beliefs to associate with illness and health. They believe that a person’s state of exists when he or she exists in harmony with nature and sickness occurs when an imbalance between the natural or supernatural forces and the sick individual exists (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). Traditional health believes and practices involving healing ceremonies and rituals restore balance when illness happens. “These can be conducted by their traditional medicine men or women, who are thought to have compelling powers, the ability to read minds, and know-how in concocting medicine, drugs and poisons.” For the white young family, the cultural belief of invincibility and youth are the driving force behind health prevention (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). “Focus on the temporary is regularised, while thinking about health is assigned to an adult person where family accountabilities pertain.” Protecting against illness or disease does not feature into their daily lives. Disease or illness is something that is insubstantial and distant, and unimaginable to their young, resilient bodies and thus irrelevant (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2015) provided an overview of the Hispanic population, in which they reported the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) categorization of the population. Specifically, OMB defines Hispanics as a population which comprises of Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, South and Central Americans as well as people from other Spanish cultures (CDC, 2015). According to a report compiled by the CNN Library (2015), Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States. In fact, the size of the Hispanic group in the United States is only second to the size of the Hispanic group in Mexico. The report further explained that there were approximately 54 million Hispanic people in the United States by 2013. The number showed a 2.1% increase in the Hispanic population between 2012 and 2013 (CNN Library, 2015). The total Hispanic population in 2013 constituted about 17% of the United States total population. Gonzalez-Barrera and Lopez (2013) inferred that people of Mexican origin constituted the largest number of Hispanics in the United States. They maintained that there were approximately 33.7 million Hispanics from Mexico in the United States by 2012 (Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2013). The Mexican-Hispanics population is represented by people who are born in the United States and immigrants from Mexico.

Not only family, but spiritualism is used for health promotion by prayer for the ill and dying (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Hot and cold imbalances, magic, spiritual discipline, disturbance of internal organs, and mental and emotional problems are thought to be the cause of sickness and bad health (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). The theory of hot and cold directs Latinos to choose applicable treatment (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). To demonstrate, warm liquids are used for an individual with a cold, and child liquids are used for an individual with a fever (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014).

Iannotta, Joah G. Emerging Issues in Hispanic Health: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2002. Print.

The United States is a melting pot of cultures from around the globe. Many immigrants acclimate to American culture and customs while retaining many of their native culture and customs. However, much of their culture places these immigrants at risk for health disparities. Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing racial and ethnic in the United States (cardiosmart.org, 2014). According to CDC.gov (2004), compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics experienced chronic liver disease 62% more, diabetes 41% more, HIV 168% more and cancer of the cervix 152% and stomach 63% more for males and 150% more for females.

The information cited in this paper provides an insight into the health disparities that exist in the Hispanic population. It shows that Hispanics have increased rates of health problems when compared to other racial groups in the United States. These disparities have been shown to be connected to socioeconomic status. The information cited in this paper show that Hispanics have lower socioeconomic status than whites and their low socioeconomic status is implicated as a risk factor for health status. Furthermore, Hispanics face increased barriers to accessing care, receive poorer quality care, and ultimately experience worse health outcomes. For example, Hispanics have higher morbidity rates for diabetes, obesity, cancer, asthma and proliferative

The language barrier is a glaring problem for Hispanics in terms of accessing health care coverage for several reasons. Hispanics have far fewer Spanish speaking support systems to navigate them through the complex system that will provide them access to health care. In addition, demographically speaking, it is going to be harder for the Hispanic population to access a provider that is fluent in their language. While interpreters are sometimes available for the Spanish speaking population, they may be reluctant to use them. Primarily they may be worried that the translation will not be accurately reported to the health care provider as they don’t know what is being said in the English portion of the translation. Another possible barrier to translation is that perhaps the individual has a medical issue they do not want shared with a stranger who is not the medical provider specifically (Maxwell et al., 2011). Therefore, these issues could possibly create more barriers to quality care. Although the Affordable Care Act has increased health care coverage for low-income, uninsured Hispanics with the expansions of Medicaid, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, this remains to be a state option. Studies show an estimated 95% of uninsured Latinos would qualify for Medicaid

But for the rest of the population substantial disparities still exist. This problem not only affects the uninsured population and the communities they live in, but the entire nation's economy. Dozens of hospitals in Texas, New Mexico Arizona, and California, have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally mandated programs requiring hospitals to provide free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Safety net hospitals continue to operate under a heavy burden of providing care to this largely uninsured population (Torres, Steven, & Wallace, 2013). Having access to healthcare is a necessity in maintaining the good health of these undocumented immigrants. Several solutions have been proposed to overcome the barriers affecting undocumented immigrants. One solution would be to expand the coverage of the Affordable Health Care Act for this population. Another solution would be to approve an amnesty bill to alleviate the undocumented immigrants' situation in the United Sates, which would allow them to access public health

The United States is a melting pot of ethnicity, in which, the healthcare system and its benefits vary widely. Those who are able to obtain primary care insurance via a full time employer, typically have the benefits of full coverage care. However, for many minority groups, full time work alone is hard to acquire, along with the health benefits full time employment provides. Culturally competent care among the diverse populations helps increase health promotion and gain a cultural perspective. One of these mentioned groups is the Hispanic population which is steadily increasing within the United States.

Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States

Throughout this paper I will be pulling information from the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model. It is pertinent for health care workers to be familiar with this model because of the growing affects that culture has on a patient’s view of disease prevention and health restoration. This model focuses on six cultural phenomena: communication, time, space, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations. It is important for nurses to utilize this tool while performing assessments on patients because of the substantial effects that each one has on a patient’s perspective. Every person is unique and knowing that no one perspective is universal will aid the nurse in treating each patient with culturally competent care.