Whether you are a physician, an insurance provider, or a patient advocate, addressing healthcare access issues is essential to the health of your community. Getting patients to the right healthcare provider is critical, but there are many other barriers that can prevent healthcare from being available. Often these are cultural, economic, or geographic issues that can make it difficult for individuals to get the care they need. In the United States, for example, 38% of adults skipped a medical visit, test, or treatment in the last year due to cost. This is a serious problem, especially considering the United States spends more per capita than other wealthy countries, yet still trails them in key indicators of population health such as lower life expectancy.
The concept of healthcare access has been defined in a variety of ways and is a subject of ongoing preoccupation within health services research and policy. At one extreme, the definition of healthcare access is limited to the opportunity to utilise services, disregarding acceptability and technical quality [1].
Others have broadened the concept of healthcare access by incorporating multiple dimensions of utilisation – including accessibility and availability (e.g., geographical and organisational), affordability, and ability to use and understand services – and by emphasising the role of individual and community characteristics in determining these dimensions. Taking this approach allows for a holistic and dynamic conceptualisation of healthcare access that incorporates both supply and demand side determinants from a multilevel perspective. access to healthcare
