Children Medicine and Health, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The issue of access to healthcare for everybody or universal coverage has been receiving much attention in recent times due to the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill by Congress in March of this year. Essentially, the problem facing the officials and politicians involved in public policies to deal with access to healthcare is the lack of support programs for the uninsured and in particular, the needy sections of the population like children. This paper analyzes the issues surrounding access to healthcare for children and the choices before the administrators in charge of formulating public policies. The basis for this paper is the reading provided for the course.

Issues Facing Access to Health for Children

The main issues facing the provision of access to healthcare for children are to do with those that cause the needy to be denied other social services as well. These include the race, ethnicity, income level and parenting factors. If we examine each of these in turn, we find that, “Differential access and use associated with race and ethnicity may result from varying modes of utilization, insurance barriers and the cultural competency of providers” (Anderson, Rice &  Kominski, 2007, p 419). Given the fact that the majority of the uninsured in the United States are the African Americans, Latinos and illegal immigrants (who are made up of a significant number of these races), it is evident that children from these racial groups would have substantial difficulties in accessing much needed medical attention and healthcare services. (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2009, p.67)

The issue of children not being access to healthcare is compounded by the fact that they form the needy population who need immunization and other critical assistance in their childhood and these benefits are being denied to them by the factors mentioned above. Hence, the complex situation of providing children access to healthcare is exacerbated because of these reasons. (Reid, 2004, p. 153)

Public Policy Choices Available

The range of choices available is many and range from outright subsidization of the healthcare access to children, particularly the needy ones as is done in many countries in the world where access to healthcare is free for children. Further, the government can provide subsidizes in the form of grants and funds to hospitals and healthcare providers who treat children. Finally, the government can setup special clinics and undertake health checkups in those neighborhoods that have a significant population of the racial and ethnic groups mentioned above that include children from low-income families as well. (Devoe et al, 2007, p.515)

As the reading states, with the economy undergoing a structural shift from high wage and benefit-rich manufacturing jobs to low-paying and less-benefit jobs, there is a need for concerted action from the public officials on the steps needed to tackle the problem of providing healthcare access to needy children. As mentioned in the introduction, the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill is an important step in this direction. One of the provisions of the Bill is that children and adults till the age of 25 can be included in the insurance cover of their parents and this would substantially help in providing access to health care to the needy.

References

Anderson, R., Rice, T. H., & Kominski, G. F. (2007). Changing the US Health Care System. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Bodenheimer, T.S. & Grumbach, K. (2009.) Understanding health policy, a clinical approach (5th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jennifer E. DeVoe, M. D., Alia Baez, B., Heather Angier, B., Lisa Krois, M., Christine Edlund, M., & Patricia A. Carney, P. (2007). Barriers to Health Care Access for Low-Income Families. Annals of Family Medicine , 5 (6), 511-518.

Reid, T.R. (2004) The healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer healthcare