Policy Brief

Title Primary Care Access for Elderly and Low-Income Individuals

Statement of Issue Low income individuals, households, and elderly populations often do not have the base case needed to basic primary care service offerings. This ultimately causes concern for society overall as primary care providers are critical element within the healthcare infrastructure.

Overview

Healthcare is a very convoluted and contentious issue within the United States. The two primary areas of contention are overall access to healthcare and its affordability. Access to a certain extent has been alleviated through the Affordable Care Act, which mandates insurance for certain segments of the population. However, poor, elderly, and certain minority segments of the population do not have adequate coverage. In some cases, they dont have health insurance at all. This lack of insurances within these populations creates higher costs for those who do pay adequate health insurance premiums. For example, individuals may look to delay seeking care, until the illness or injury becomes much more acute, thus raising the overall cost of treatment. In addition, many of these ailments benefit from preventative intervention through the primary care system. Illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, and some forms of cancers can be mitigated if treated early on. If not, the overall cost of rectifying these issues becomes exponentially higher. As a result, programs should be constructed to help improve over healthcare outcomes for those who are poor or elderly.

Recommendations

The first recommendation is to first expand and advocate for telehealth, remote patient care, and other technological solutions that can expand access to services to the poor and elderly population. Telehealth and telemedicine are both cost effective methods in which to administer care without having patients leave their home in certain instances. In addition, human error associated with medical records, or inaccuracy associated with incorrect treatments or record keeping. This solution also helps to reduce cancellations by patients. Finally efficiencies are improved as delays associated with certain routine check-ups are diminished.

The next...…better opportunity to participate in the American healthcare system. Expansion of the bill will also lower healthcare costs which have consistently ranked the highest in the world (Raftery, 2016).

I would also like to request that the bill look to expand access to educational services related to healthcare practitioners. Here, the healthcare system lacks the needed personnel to adequately service those within the poor and elderly populations. Here, I would suggest expanding legislation related to forgiveness of student loans for those with degrees in needed medical field. I would also look to suggest expansion of residency slot and financial add to programs that look to expand medical residency enrollment. Finally, the legislation should look to help advocate for foreign educated physicians to practice in the United States. These provisions, although not full proof, will help move the country forward in providing quality care to those who need it. Here, leveraging technology will lower costs and improve outcomes. Likewise improving medical student enrollment and attracting foreign physicians can help…