FPX206008

Identifying a Local Health Care Economic Issue

The African American population faces a significant healthcare economic challenge due to limited access to preventive care. Essential services like physical exams, tests, and immunizations play a critical role in early disease detection and management. However, barriers such as high out-of-pocket costs, lack of insurance, and limited availability of healthcare providers often prevent African Americans from accessing these services (Jordan et al., 2024). This insufficient access to preventive care contributes to higher rates of chronic illnesses and worsened health outcomes, ultimately driving up healthcare costs and exacerbating health disparities within this community.

Health Care Economic Issue

Lack of access to preventive care is one of the biggest economic issues of healthcare for African Americans. The factors contributing to the lack of African Americans' access to preventive care are multi-factorial. This includes insufficient health insurance, out-of-pocket expenses, and a shortage of providers in the healthcare sector. These situations lead to delayed diagnoses of chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, cancer, to mention a few. Such conditions give rise to poorer health outcomes and greatly increased treatment costs. Lack of trust in the healthcare sector further fuels this problem by discouraging various patients from receiving or on time the necessary preventive services. (McMaughan et al., 2020). For instance, African American women are less likely to get screened for breast cancer through mammography, and therefore are diagnosed at later stages and have higher mortality rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Cancer Society provide examples of these disparities. African Americans experience a higher incidence of chronic diseases and lower survival rates (Benavidez, 2024). Also, the healthcare providers, especially those in the community health centers, report that African American patients avoid or delay 2 preventive care because of the costs and the perceived lack of trust in the healthcare system. To meet these challenges, efforts from the CDC, the American Cancer Society, and community health centers are crucial for enhancing health equity and decreasing healthcare expenses in these populations.

The Rationale for Selecting the Healthcare Issue

Lack of access to preventive care in the African American population is a significant concern because it shows how the two aspects of life; health and economy are intertwined. Financial constraints including high charges and lack of health insurance make people fail to access necessary services hence their health deteriorates and the costs of treatment rise. It is important to close these gaps to improve health equity and the health of these populations (Chisolm et al., 2023). In addition, in case of not receiving timely preventive care, the patient may develop a chronic disease that was not diagnosed or treated, which poses a threat to the patient’s safety. Addressing these access disparities is crucial to improving the safety of African American patients and overall health of the communities. This particular issue highlights other systemic problems and brings attention to the need for specific approaches to address the problem of healthcare disparities.

Reflection of Personal Experience

As a nurse, I have witnessed how African American patients experience economic barriers to accessing preventive care. Most of them end up being late to access necessary screenings due to high costs and then usually get diagnosed in stages of the sickness that could otherwise be prevented. It is very sad how it adversely affects their health outcomes. The economic concerns also align with promoting health equity in our community.

Significant Impacts of Healthcare Economic Issues

The health economic issue that hit my nursing role, my organization, my colleagues, and the larger community is limited access to preventive care. I daily come across patients whose key reason for delaying preventive health care services is because of financial constraints. This often results in the diagnosis of conditions at a rather late stage, either when the treatment is more difficult or the cost of care is higher (Frazier et al., 2022). This strain is felt within our healthcare organization by increased requirements for emergency care and acute interventions that could have been prevented with earlier care. Delaying preventive care generates increased costs for our organization through the use of expensive emergency and acute care services that would have been more easily addressed with earlier intervention. This leaves us and our colleagues to bear the emotional and professional weight of managing these health crises-needlessly-which then puts undue strain on the resources and personnel at our institutions In the African American community, such financial access barriers translate into worse health outcomes, higher morbidity, and mortality rates from disease conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Not only does this perpetuate cycles of poor health but also cycles of socioeconomic disadvantage within the community (Jordan et al., 2024). This can only be alleviated by reducing such financial barriers to improve health outcomes and lighten the burden of the entire healthcare system.

Impact on Diverse Group

Individuals from diverse backgrounds, especially from the African American community, and those of lower incomes, are disproportionately affected by not having access to preventive care. These are populations that usually incur high out-of-pocket expenses and lack good insurance that can cover the costs of preventative measures. Thus, the preventive services become unaffordable, and many have to forego routine examinations and early screenings. As a result, serious conditions such as cancers and diabetes become diagnosed at stages much later 4 than optimal. Moreover, health professionals or medical facilities do not operate in low-income communities, further aggravating access issues (Maness et al., 2023). Higher rates of chronic diseases and preventable conditions ensue, further exacerbating health disparities and contributing to a vicious cycle of ill health and financial insecurity. Reducing these economic barriers will be important for promoting health equity and better outcomes in this population.

Gap to Address the Healthcare Economic Issue

Inequality in health insurance coverage has already challenged the African American community, which may hamper their efforts to address the economic side of access to preventive care. Adequate insurance that covers essential preventive services is not available to African Americans and other low-income groups, who are also exposed to high out-of-pocket expenses that discourage them from being treated early (Frazier et al., 2022). This inadequacy results not only in delayed care but also in worse health outcomes because most people fail to seek necessary medical attention on account of considerations of cost. In addition, the poor distribution of healthcare workers in these communities complicates access to basic preventive services. The few providers available would mean that even those who are insured would have reason to expect potentially inaccessible care, an outcome that increases long-term healthcare expenditures and reinforces existing health disparities (Jindal et al., 2023). This ultimately leads to poor health outcomes for the community. All of these gaps require a multi-dimensional approach to include enhancement in the insurance coverage and the number of practitioners operating in the healthcare sector as well as sensitization on preventive care. Above that, there is the structural hindrance to access which needs to be overcome. Knowledge and cultural attitudes pose further complications to an individual's need for care, therefore necessitating focused educational and outreach efforts (Jordan et al., 2024). This would, on the 5 contrary, implement those practices for the improvement of access to preventive care for all, and thus reduce health inequalities which could contribute further to achieving better health outcomes within the African American community.

Conclusion

Limited access to preventive care is one of the critical healthcare economic issues disproportionately affecting African American and low-income communities. This includes major financial barriers such as high out-of-pocket costs, no comprehensive insurance, and limited providers across the board, which deny these groups needed preventive services. Consequently, there have been late-stage diagnoses with more serious health consequences and higher healthcare costs. These disparities in health care call for the addressing of inequities through focused interventions, policy reforms, and increased support for less privileged areas to attain health equity and improved community health. These inequities in coverage and preventive care form the basis of a call to create a fair and effective healthcare system for all, irrespective of class or race.