Over the past years, inequalities in the provision of healthcare have been experienced in the United States regardless of the efforts put into ensuring they were eliminated. The health outcomes and status of the minority groups are weaker than those of the majority group. Some factors are associated with disparities in health care access. These factors include access, affordability, and diversification of the systems in healthcare hence making elimination of disparities a mystery (Williams et al., 2016). To help curb these problems, health care leaders from national organizations have joined hands in creating an action that will help in the elimination of these disparities as well as improvement of healthcare quality for all patients. Some of the organizations involved include the National Partnership for Women & Families, American College of Physicians, and the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC)
National Partnership for Women and Families is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that is situated in Washington D.C. The organization is involved in educating and providing information about healthcare to families and women. The organization became famous due to its engagement in supporting, protecting, and passing the Family and Medical Leave Act. This law allows workers to take care of sick relatives, to care for newly born or adopted children or recover from individual sickness. The stakeholders of this organization include Debra L.Ness, who took the role of the president since 2004, and the vice president is Vicki Shabo ("National Partnership," n.d). The target audience for this organization is mainly families and women.
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The mission of National Partnership for Women and Families is an improvement in the health of families and women, and making the workplace of the nation a family-friendly and fair environment. The mission statement of this organizations explains the achievements that they have made in fighting for policies that have helped women for over four decades ("National Partnership," n.d). Presently, the organization has ensured that workplaces are fair, enhanced reproductive rights, established policies, and provided access to better health care for women. To ensure that women access healthcare services and equitable workplace, the organization has had certain practices. It has been involved in the enactment of laws that prohibit harassment of employees, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and The Family and Medical Leave Act. Childbirth Connection has also joined this organization to enhance more strategies in the improvement of child and maternal health.
American College of Physicians (ACP) is an organization which works at the national level whose specialization is in the care, treatment, and diagnosis of adults. ACP was founded in 1915 ("American College of Physicians," n.d). Recently the organization has provided strategies that help in the improvement of the healthcare of women (Lauren 2018). The stakeholders of this organization include Associate, Fellow (FACP), Medical Student, and Master (MACP). The organization is led by a Board of Regents and a Board of Governors that advises it. The target audience for this organization is mainly adults.
The mission of the American College of Physicians is the enhancement of effectiveness and quality health care through practicing professionalism and excellence in medicine. This organization merged with the American Society of Internal Medicine to enhance and complement its mission. The organization has had a series of practices to promote women access to health care. ACP has developed recommendations in its policy paper that will see an improvement to healthcare provided to women. First, providing women with affordable healthcare that is nondiscriminatory. Second, closing gaps that prevent women's health from being represented in clinical issues (Lauren 2018). Lastly, ensuring that women have access to reproductive care. These practices will help improve women healthcare.
National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) is another organization that was founded to help in the achievement of a better health system two decades ago. It is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that has other 80 organizations that it represents ("National Coalition on Health Care," n.d). The stakeholders of this organization include businesses, unions, medical societies, patients, minorities, women, and people with disabilities. The target audiences are the employees, congregants, and most of the Americans.
The mission of NCHC is bringing together various stakeholders to ensure the achievement of better and affordable healthcare for consumers, taxpayers, employers, and patients. Health system that is of high quality and is accessible is essential to the economic development of the country and hence, the mission of the organization ("National Coalition on Health Care," n.d). Some strategies that the organization has put across to ensure that its mission succeeds include reduction of cost and improvement of quality in health care by sharing responsibilities with all stakeholders involved. With this, the costs will be shared between the private and public health sector
The strategies used by the National Partnership for Women and Families, American College of Physicians, and the National Coalition on Health Care are useful as they have helped in the achievement of their mission. My target audience, when addressing the barriers to healthcare access, would be the government; the government should ensure that there are no disparities when it comes to healthcare access. The strategies included in my intervention would be the provision of cheaper and affordable healthcare services through cost-sharing, the use of technological advancements, and workforce diversity improvement.
In conclusion, health care disparities have affected United States citizens, especially women and minorities. However, some organizations, either at the state or national level, have come up with strategies to enhance equality and fairness in the health system. Some of them include the National Partnership for Women and Families, American College of Physicians, and National Coalition on Health Care Effective interventions, use of technological advancements and workforce diversity improvements.
References
American College of Physicians. (n.d) Retrieved from https://www.acponline.org/
Lauren, B. (2018). ACP outlines steps to improve women's healthcare equity Retrieved from www.medicalbag.com/home/medicine.acp-outlines-steps-to-improve-womens-healthcare-equity/
National Coalition on Health Care. (n.d) Retrieved from https://nchc.org/
National Partnership for Women and families. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.nationalpartnership.org/
Williams, J.S., Walker, R.J., & Egede, L.E. (2016). Achieving equity in an evolving healthcare system: opportunities and challenges. The American Journal of the medical sciences, 351(1), 33-43
