Latino Access to Health Care

Latino Access to Health Care

It is a true fact and very hard to argue that, " The health care system in the United States is the most expensive and yet arguably among the least cost effective in the developed world according to Carrillo. One of the problems with this is that most everyone that has insurance in the United States has it through their employer. If you are working and your employer does not offer you any type of insurance, it seems that you are in deep trouble if anything happens to you.

There are different barriers when speaking about health care. Barriers in a short summary are health care obstacles within our health care system that prevent vulnerable or less fortunate patients from getting needed health care or cause them to search for inferior health care compared to advantaged patients that posses more money. There are three types of barriers; Primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary access barriers are a lack of insurance, underinsurance, and inability to pay for care or treatments. Secondary barriers are all barriers encountered between home and provider's office. Tertiary barriers are ultimately the communication between provider and patient. When language and culture hinder the provider-patient communication.

One of the primary barriers statistics that is shocking is that Hispanics accounted for 50 percent of the increase in the uninsured from 1989-1999. This is an alarming number of unprotected peoples in the United States. The problem with secondary barriers is that patients are given insufficient treatment, which ultimately leads to decreased medical screening and practitioners findings of harmful diseases. Tertiary barriers problems include poor communication between provider-patient, limited health education, and of course, provider bias stereotypes. This can be a huge deal for people wanting to get fair and adequate treatment to protect themselves from sickness, injuries, and diseases.

With all these barriers that are intertwined in our health care plans it is very hard for minority's to get fair treatment. What we need to understand is that every patient no matter how much income they posses are unique. If we acknowledge this fact and we go to a universal health care system where everyone gets treatment the United States will be an overall better place to live. We not only need to put in place for a universal health care plan but when someone does get access to our health care system have a better way to navigate through the system. If we can somehow find a better way to navigate then it will make it allot easier for not only minorities to receive better health care but everyone in the U.S.