Underserved Communities Info.. help!

[cariblil]

How would you answer these questions? Is there a good source for this on the internet?

Where does the funding come from for health clinics in underserved areas? (I know types of insurance that are availabe local, county, state, fed wise.. but what about for the actual clinic?)

What programs are in place for children in underserved communities to get access to healthcare? (is this just sCHIP?)


Why don't people in underserved areas have equal access to healthcare? (loaded question.. is it that Medicare doesn't reimburse as well with private insurance ?)



Thanks in advance!

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[Piyush]

for the second question, fewer docs/facilities, poor money flow, poor govt incentives towards free stuff. Another is that if people are working all the time, they dont get a chance to see docs, which is true in areas where the income level is drastically low. Also, the population type: old, factory town, military town, etc will make difference since each of those has high demand on health care, and when enough services are not provided, the area become undeserved. In Canada, we also have to worry about the weather, specially in northern areas. I also personally believe that large groups of us that work in areas that we would not otherwise be in, like offshore operations, military duties oversees, and aid groups that travel also make up undeserved populations. For us in North America, it might be that much of a issue, but extremist strongholds, politically targeted areas and religious minority areas are also undeserved in few countries.

For now that all I can think of why peeps in undeserved areas don't have equal access to health care services

 

[alwaysaangel]

Where does the funding come from for health clinics in underserved areas? (I know types of insurance that are availabe local, county, state, fed wise.. but what about for the actual clinic?)

Most money for free clinics comes from private donors, goverment grants and foundation grants.
If they are a federally qualified health center then they can also get money for medical, medicare, fampact, etc. But a lot don't get that and they run strictly off of grants and fundraising.

What programs are in place for children in underserved communities to get access to healthcare? (is this just sCHIP?)

Yup pretty much every state has a program to give health insurance to children. Children getting coverage isn't as big of an issue as adults. Old adults are also usually covered by medi-care so its really just the population between those age groups that is such an issue (at least financial - there are other barriers to care).

Why don't people in underserved areas have equal access to healthcare? (loaded question.. is it that Medicare doesn't reimburse as well with private insurance ?)

Its not usually the geographic area that causes the access problems - its the people that tend to live in that area.
People who actually qualify for Medicare usually don't have too much of a problem. Yes the reimbursment massively sucks compared to private insurance and not all doctors accept it.

But usually there are quite a few clinics that do take it. They're often hard to get into as a new patient but once you're in you're good to go.

The real issue is all the people who don't qualify for any government insurance programs (there are a lot of people who don't). They are left with either no safety net or only county programs which cover them at the local county hospital, but don't actually reimburse doctors.

These people have no where to go for medical care - if they have a primary care issue they go to the ER and then never pay the bill.

In addition to the financial issues there are other barriers that prevent people from getting health care: either linguistic, or because when they have gone to doctors offices they've been treated very badly.

 

[bournemdstudent]

You're talking about mediCAID, not mediCARE. Medicare is for old people, and everyone one of them qualifies. Medicaid, however, is for the poor and you need to be under a certain income to qualify (i think it's twice the poverty level, but not sure, and it differs from state to state)

There is no problem with medicare reimbursment rates, they're approximately the same as private insurance (private insurers really just copy the medicare rates). Medicaid rates are much lower, however.

 

[Mayday]

I think part of the problem is that in the last 10-20 years or so, doctors have been more attracted to the large cities and nice areas. Why go and be a family practitioner in podunk where you barely make ends meet and the biggest event of the year is the county fair - where everyone gets excited over who has the biggest pig and who can milk a goat the fastest. (Not kidding here, I grew up in an itty bitty farm town and this is exactly what it was like.) instead of being a doctor in a large city with a generous salary and lots of things to do, museums, art galleries, zoos, etc.

 

[ec2190]

You're talking about mediCAID, not mediCARE. Medicare is for old people, and everyone one of them qualifies. Medicaid, however, is for the poor and you need to be under a certain income to qualify (i think it's twice the poverty level, but not sure, and it differs from state to state)

There is no problem with medicare reimbursment rates, they're approximately the same as private insurance (private insurers really just copy the medicare rates). Medicaid rates are much lower, however.

Actually, Medicare reimbursement rates are also quite low, so this is an issue for a lot of docs. However, Medicare is infinitely more reliable and timely in issuing checks than are the private plans, so not many docs are going to bail or severely restrict the number of Medicare patients they see.