Rural Healthcare

A detailed Summary of Rural Healthcare

Rural populations have often been viewed as especially vulnerable with respect to access to health care. Rural populations have a less developed health care system. Residents of rural communities also report having a higher rate of chronic illness and disability. Rural communities face economic hardships, this makes it hard to access health care when it is needed. All this combined with the fact that rural communities face physical barriers such as distance and availability of transportation, makes accessing health care very difficult. Limited health care systems make it harder for rural residents to obtain access.

Measures of access need to be expanded to address issues of particular concern in rural areas and gain a better understanding of access problems that may be specific to rural areas. Access in rural areas is complicated, partly because of different employment patterns and insurance coverage among rural residents. "Rural residents are on average poorer, older and for those under the age 65, less insured than persons living in urban areas."(Braden and Beauregaurd 1994). Rural Americans are also more likely to be self-employed; this makes employment related insurance benefits less wid

Rural areas have fewer specialist physicians this also means they have less access to specialists. "Almost 72% of total visits were to primary care physicians (primary care physician is one who practices, general internal medicine, family practice, general practice, and general pediatrics) compared to 63% of visits in urban counties (NHCS# 1996) The remainder of these visits were to specialists (a specialist is one who specializes in such fields as, dermatology, cardiology, nerveology). Since residents in rural communities are more likely to suffer from chronic illness, the lower number of rural resident specialist visits raises some concern. "Not only are specialist visits fewer in rural areas, but visits to obstetricians and gynecologists (9% for urban areas compared to 3% for rural areas) and psychiatrists (5% in urban areas compared to 3% in rural areas) are also fewer"(RWJF, 1994).

Indicators of access include self-reports of having a usual source of care, of not receiving needed care, and of delayed care due to cost. The 1994 National Health Interview Survey Access to Care, asked the question, was there a time in the past 12 months when an individual needed care but was unable to obtain it. Only 3% of respondents said they needed care and could not obtain it. This did not vary by type of geographic area. However there is a small difference in ability to obtain eye glasses: 2.9% of residents in metro areas reported being unabl

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Approximate Word count = 987
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous