The assessment will focus on young and less educated single mothers. The group will be assessed to determine the different barriers that they face in relation to access to healthcare. Members of this group are less educated and thus cannot get good jobs to support themselves and their children. In turn, this leads to individual problems that place them at a greater risk for poor health compared to the average individual.
This paper evaluates micro-level and macro-level barriers that affect the well-being and health of young and less educated single mothers and recommend solutions for each issue. The paper also examines the regulatory, legal, accreditation and ethical issues regarding the offered services to this group.
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An individual financial challenge is a micro-level barrier for the vulnerable mothers as it hinders them from accessing healthcare services. Economic loss and poverty decrease the ability of this group to offer good parenting to their children and places them at a higher risk of experiencing disproportionate impacts of adverse life events (Loibl, 2017). Vulnerable mothers also experience unequal distribution of financial resources, which places them at a disadvantage in their ability to engage in and gain from economic activities. While regulatory changes have transformed over the years to empower women financially through an increase in educational attainment and share of both paid and unpaid work, inequality issues still persist for vulnerable mothers because of a discriminatory culture. Vulnerable mothers do not participate in policy-making meetings that shape the distribution of financial resources and other opportunities. In turn, this propagates their suffering and decreases their capacity to deal with their resource dependence due to their social roles and obligations in relation to child nurturing responsibilities (De Chesnay & Anderson, 2012). Besides, it restricts them at the individual level and prevents them from having surplus funds to spend on their well-being and the well-being of their children.
The proposed solution is that the program ought to focus on an integrated healthcare in which care across both health and social care domains are integrated. The individual financial issue is a major hindrance to healthcare access, and thus decision makers ought to focus on integrated funds to enhance integrated care and attain quality healthcare at a low cost. Budgets across both health and social care sectors should be combined to ensure effective care integration. Integrated funds would promote coordinated care, which would improve the experience of vulnerable groups while accessing care and enhance their social and health care outcomes while reducing their healthcare costs.
Economic loss and poverty affect health outcomes through the availability of and access to quality healthcare. Macro-level barriers are concerned with the regulation of budget and the formulation of welfare policies by the authorities at the local government level. Currently, healthcare funding for vulnerable mothers is complex at the local government level because welfare policy formulators ignore this group when articulating macroeconomic regulations. Development of inclusive policies requires knowledge of the distributional effects of economic growth approaches, macroeconomic policies and the specific challenges in relation to empowering less educated women, particularly the unequal gender distribution of unpaid work and its implications for access to economic opportunities and resources. The effect of economic growth on this group can differ substantially, especially in relation to employment and well-being. Budgets at the local government level are vital mechanisms for authorities to ensure vulnerable mothers gain from public-sector spending. Responsive budget programs are instrumental in facilitating transformation in budget decisions, allocation and outcomes to ensure that resources are distributed to implement commitments on equality among all groups. Based on statistics, state and local governments account for about 17 percent of the entire health expenditure (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2018). Local government leaders mostly focus on total expenditure while applying financial reductions in community-based programs. In turn, this causes problems when it comes to the need to ensure vulnerable mothers and their children access quality healthcare since expenditure on other areas is greater than the amount allocated to healthcare services for vulnerable populations.
Addressing the macro-level barrier entails the inclusion of a well-arranged independent investment system. For instance, local government authorities can deal with disproportionate expenditure on other domains by establishing a specific donation system for vulnerable mothers. Besides, local authorities can attempt new funding ways and less expensive treatment modalities to decrease healthcare costs while ensuring that vulnerable populations access quality healthcare (De Chesnay & Anderson, 2012). Local authorities can also work with private investors and encourage them to invest in low-cost healthcare.
Another barrier that vulnerable mothers and children face when attempting to access quality healthcare is the ethical component of getting specialized support. The reason is that other complex issues emerge when attempting to solve the problem that this vulnerable population faces, for example, there are other complex minority-majority domains. The concern here is that integrating a specialized health care program leads to the widening of the gap between deserving and undeserving groups who have identical social needs. The issue that can emerge is why vulnerable mothers and children should receive specialized care than people with disabilities or the elderly group? Consequently, ethical limitations also hinder the delivery of quality healthcare and lead to inter-agency and inter-communal conflicts since it is challenging to address the needs of all vulnerable groups simultaneously.
It is challenging to deal with an ethical barrier because it is at the core of the foundation of the community. Nevertheless, since mothers and children are considered to be the major reproductive force demographics, the program recommends the existence of a balance between deserving and most deserving populations when attempting to manage expectations of a vulnerable population.
In conclusion, vulnerable mothers face various challenges in relation to accessing quality healthcare. It is recommended that policymakers consider integrating care to reduce costs and to attempt other sources of funding to allow this group access quality healthcare. When attempting to consider which vulnerable group to focus on, there should be a balance between deserving and most deserving groups.
References
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2018, February 14). NHE-Fact-Sheet . Retrieved February 20, 2018, from https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and- systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html
Top of Form
De Chesnay, M., & Anderson, B. A. (2012). Caring for the vulnerable: Perspectives in nursing theory, practice, and research . Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Bottom of Form
Loibl, C. (2017). 26 Living in Poverty: Understanding the Financial Behaviour of Vulnerable Groups. Economic Psychology , 2380 , 421.
