Rural Health Care

Term Paper # 105076

Medical and Health > Public Health Issues
Political Science > Social Security and Welfare
Sociology > Welfare

Rural Health Care

A close look at the health disparities present in rural communities in the United States.

1,367 words () | 4 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper explores why poor individuals in rural areas in the US have great health disparities and have a high incidence of not receiving health care at all. The paper attributes this to limited access to care, language barriers, lack of education on health care and lack of communication technologies. The paper emphasizes that this is a population that primarily does not have health insurance, does not receive Medicare or Medicaid and has no means of receiving emergency room treatment if it were needed. The paper concludes that the only solution at this time appears to be to mandate federal funding for rural health care programs.

From the Paper:

"The United States government relays that there are an estimated 45 million people in the United States that do not have health insurance (Desoto, Hofer & Tajalli, 2005, p. 67). This is primarily due to the high cost of health care and the continued decline in the number of employers that offer partial or full health care benefits to their workers. Of this population there are the working poor, who do not make a wage that is capable of supporting members of the household and cause those within the family to not be capable of affording health care at all. This is true of individuals in both urban and rural areas (Heirich, 1998, p. 3)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Desoto, W., Hofer, K., and Tajalli, H. (2005). Health care in rural Texas. Policy Studies Journal. 29(1): 154-167.
Galambos, C. (2005). Health care disparities among rural populations: A neglected frontier. Health and Social Work. 30(3): 179-196.
Heirich, M. (1998). Rethinking health care: Innovation and change in America. Boulder: Westview.
National health care disparities report. (2005). AHRQ. Retrieved August 2, 2007, from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr05/nhdr05.pdf