Cultural Differences In Healthcare

There is a clear evidence that links Clinician-patient communication to patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and health outcomes. The understanding and the appreciation of cultural differences highly influence the communication and the plan of treatment (6, 7). Failure of physicians in understanding sociocultural differences between themselves and their patients might results in lower quality of health care (8).

So why don’t these people get insurance? Well, as is so often quoted, “money makes the world go round.” When it comes to health insurance however, it is not the world, but only America that seems to have a problem with providing health care for a reasonable price to its citizens. 55 percent of uninsured people answered that the reason they are without the safety of insurance is the reason everyone expects--they cannot afford it (NRHA 1).

Today uninsured Americans make up approximately 4.2 million people. Because these families cannot afford the high cost of insurance, they do not get the health care needed to maintain good health. They must live with the pain and worry of the problem and when they do get medical care, they assume huge debts and another worry of how to pay for it.

This is a paper about the issues involving uninsured Americans and what we can do to improve healthcare in America.

Culture has more than one definition. It can be defined as the language spoken throughout a group of people or even the beliefs practiced. In the professional field of nursing, nurses are required to do more than administer medication or change bandages on a patient. To be able to fulfill a nurse’s job requirements, a nurse must learn to be culturally competent. Cultural competency in the professional field of nursing means to care and respect the patient whether or not the health care provider is in agreement with the patient’s decisions.

Not having health insurance makes a difference in people’s access to needed medical care and their financial security. The barriers the uninsured face in getting the care that they need means they are less likely to receive preventive care, are more likely to be hospitalized for conditions that could have been prevented, and are more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance.  The financial impact can also be severe. Uninsured families already struggle financially to meet basic needs, and medical bills, even for minor problems, can quickly lead to medical debt. (McCarter, 2011)

One of the major social problems in the United States is the increasing number of uninsured people who are among the vulnerable populations in the America. In 2008, there were approximately 46 million of non-elderly Americans without health insurance including adults and children. While this population includes people from all age ranges, young adults account for a significant portion of these people since they are likely to be uninsured. Moreover, many uninsured individuals are in families with at least a single full-time worker as Hispanics excessively have the highest rates of the uninsured. However, the huge share of this population is white Americans as compared to people from other races.

Before the Affordable Care Act, 50.7 million Americans (16.7 percent) were uninsured. The main reason for this was money. The majority of these uninsured American families simply couldn’t afford health insurance and those who did have insurance spent a good chunk of their income to pay for it. The percentage of Americans who were covered by employment-based health insurance (the most popular form of insurance at the time) was the lowest it had been since 1987 when the first statistics on

Even with employer-sponsored programs and federal programs for those who qualify, many Americans are uninsured. Over 46 million Americans had no health insurance in 2006, and 86.7 million went without health insurance at some point in 2007 and 2008 (“Health Care Issues”). Why has the number of uninsured risen so drastically and why are employer-sponsored programs dwindling?

In a study entitled " Who are the Remaining Uninsured and Why Haven't They Signed Up for Coverage?" there were factors identified that attributes to higher rates of uninsured groups. The factors are as follows: the ACA's exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the coverage expansion; the lack of Medicaid expansion in 19 states; less awareness of marketplaces in some demographic groups; concerns about affordability and eligibility; difficulty selecting plans during the enrollment process, and lack of assistance in selecting

Individuals who are uninsured tend to be at risk in several ways. They include not having access to preventive care, holding back in seeking treatment may result into more serious illnesses thereby making treatment even more expensive for them to afford. Most public health facilities do not satisfy the needs of many uninsured Americans. Unlike their counterparts, uninsured individuals are

Over the recent years number of American are without health insurance has increase significantly. The resent growth of uninsured American is mainly due to unemployment and permanent disables. At that, most American are employed, fulltime and still making the decision not to have insurance because some think it is the federal government responsibility. Today, the United State has over twenty million of American uninsured. In 2009 over thirty-five million were uninsured. The Afford Care Act ongoing issue on whether the government should provide health care for uninsured. The aims of Affordable Care Act were to ensure that all seniors have healthcare insurance, and to improve the health care delivery systems.

The impacts of a large portion of the population being uninsured can have an adverse reaction on the population who are insured. Study done by RAND Corporation and a UCLA shows that it hard for insured patients to find a regular source of care, have delay in their care or going care, and less satisfied with their care (Kelly, 2011, Para 2). Furthermore, high rates of uninsured population can also increase rate of acute health conditions and diagnoses. Thus, causing American health care to be more expensive and increase raise in disease, and sickness in the American population. According to Kaiser Family Foundation (2017), “Because people without health coverage are less likely than those with insurance to have regular outpatient care, they

Data was taken from the Central Texas Region and 3 tables were drawn breaking down the factors of health and income. The evidence suggest that for Central Texas residents surveyed making $35,000 or less had a higher percentage of being uninsured. This correlates with economic status and jobs such as blue collar workers as opposed to those white collar occupations, specifically those in the community averaging a yearly income of $15,000 - $35,000 had no health care coverage of approximately 30%. Upon further analyzing the second graph the number 1 reason the community suggested at 30% for not having health care coverage

I don’t believe that the characteristics described in the “Characters of the Uninsured” section of chapter 4 of the text are not all interrelated. However, I do believe that some of the characteristics do go hand in hand. For example, education level, employment status and income level can be interrelated. As the text states, “Education level is also an important factor in insurance status because it is easier, for example, for college graduates to earn higher incomes and obtain jobs that provide affordable employment based insurance as compared to less-educated individuals.” (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2017, p. 50) These three items relate to each other, where other characteristics like geography and race my not interrelate in this situation but