ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE BY THE ELDERLY 4
Running head: ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE BY THE ELDERLY.
Access to Healthcare by the Elderly.
Student’s Name
Affiliation of Institution
Date of Submission
Access to healthcare by the elderly.
The elderly in society have faced several problems when they are trying to get access to health services. The problems that exist include the inability to obtain health insurance that can cover these individuals at their old age. For the individuals who have health insurance, they face the problem of paying for the insurance cover since they have little income which does not cover their needs. Other health insurance covers cannot cater to the medication that the elderly may be required, and therefore private health insurance becomes a necessity.
Inadequate healthcare centres that are at proximity to the elderly have denied them an opportunity to visit these health centres. The problem is mostly experienced in rural areas where the health centres are located far from the elderly, and they have to travel long distances to obtain medical services. Some do not have the means to access these centres, and they end up being taken care of when they are at their homes (Syed, Gerber & Sharp, 2013). The quality of services provided to the elderly sometimes fall short, and the elderly may perceive such a service as unfriendly and opt not to seek these medical services at a later date.
The issue of the elderly and access to healthcare needs to be advocated as it requires several stakeholders including the federal government. It should come to the attention of the various bodies to devise policies and enforce them so that the elderly get access to quality health services. The elderly should have insurance to cover for their medical needs while the government should pay this or the payments are subsidized to make them affordable by the elderly.
All the elderly members of society should be registered so that they can be easily recognized and be considered in the annual budget by the government. A follow up need to be included to ensure that the elderly get the health insurance and the quality of health given to them is satisfactory. Special health centres should be set up or having some mobile health camps that will cater to the medical requirements of the elderly (Salisbury, 2012).
References
Salisbury, C. (2012). Multimorbidity: redesigning health care for people who use it. The Lancet, 380(9836), 7-9.
Syed, S. T., Gerber, B. S., & Sharp, L. K. (2013). Travelling towards disease: transportation barriers to health care access. Journal of community health, 38(5), 976-993.