MODULE 3: The Importance of Care By Doctors
Patients in underserved communities targeted by community-based health programs are unlikely to be insured, and thus do not regularly visit doctors. A lack of health insurance, and thus preventive care, has been widely documented to lead to poorer health across a variety of measures:
“The uninsured are less likely to receive preventive care, 3 times more likely to postpone seeking costly care, 4 times more likely to not get needed care, 3 to 4 times more likely to report problems in receiving such care, more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer, and more likely to be hospitalized for preventable conditions. (1)
To close this health gap, community-based health programs must connect underserved patients with the same quality of care that insured patients receive. Disease prevention in the form of regular doctor exams must be a primary focus. Focusing on treatment rather than prevention is cost ineffective, and it does not attack the root health problem on a macroscopic scale.
“Health providers in the growing realm of free and volunteer clinic care in the United States are fast realizing that care delivery must focus less on treatment and more on prevention… By working with the community to promote health, providers limit spending on more expensive disease treatment.”(2)
In addition to the prohibitively high cost of medical care, fear of doctors and a distrust of the healthcare system is a common barrier to regular doctor visits among the uninsured.(3) Through education, community-based health programs can dispel this fear of doctors as well as raise awareness about the importance of regular doctor visits among the medically underserved.
Module 4: Health Education >>
Footnotes
(1) DeHaven, M.J. and Gimpel, N.E. “Reaching Out to Those in Need: The Case for Community Health Science.” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. 20.6 (2007): 527-532.
(2) Ibid
(3) See, for example, Randall, V.R. “Slavery, Segregation and Racism: Trusting the Health Care System Ain’t Always Easy! An African American Perpsective on Bioethics.” Saint Louis University Public Law Review. 15 (1995): 191-235. Accessed on 3 November 2008. <http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/stlpl15&id=1&size=2&collection=journals&index=journals/stlpl>