Impact of Uninsured in Rural Population

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Uninsured group and demographics
Impact on rural health care providers
Recommendations
Conclusion
List of references

Introduction

Uninsured refers to the state whereby people do not take into account health insurance for their families or even themselves. Based on studies which have been carried out it is clear that the rate of uninsured among the rural population has continued to increase day by day. This is not only realized in rural population there are also cases of lack of health insurance covers in urban areas though the percentage is not very high. The number of uninsured people among rural population has continued to increase globally and the increase has negative impacts to different sectors and organizations in the society. (Ziller et al, 2008)

The sector and organizations that are highly affected by the increased rate are related to health care and the providers of health insurance, most of the investors in these organizations are affected greatly by the increased rates. Basically the continued increase in the rate of uninsured among the rural population has continued to raise high concerns in the society and especially to the sectors and organizations that are directly affected. (Ziller et al, 2008)

Uninsured group and demographics

The rural population is the group under discussion for this study, what has highly triggered the study is the continued increase of the percentage of the population in rural areas that does not have health insurance covers. Though not each and every person in the rural population who does not have health insurance the largest percentage almost 90 percent of the population is not insured. The large rural population that is not insured and the continued increase over the time is what has continued to raise concerns to the general public, policy makers as well as service providers. (Ziller et al, 2008)

Since the cases of uninsured are not only for rural population there are certain common characteristics that are associated with most of the people who are uninsured. Whether rural or urban the people who are highly affected are predominantly the low- income working Americans and their families. The reason as to why this group of people is highly affected is because most of them do not get insurance cover from work place. The main reason for this is that most of the low-income employers do not provide the cover and at the same time many of them can not afford the insurance cover.

Based on surveys and research conducted in United States it is clear that percentage or the number of the uninsured people in United States has continued to increase year after year in rural areas. According to population survey which was carried out in September 2002 the uninsured population was 43.7 million Americans, when the figure is compared to 2001 survey which showed 41.2 million the difference between the two figures is 2.5 million which reflects an increase of 14.6 percent. This reflects great increase in a span of one year. From these two surveys it is clear that the rate continues to increase year after year hence increasing concern of the affected sectors and organizations in this particular business sector. (Ziller et al, 2008)

Impact on rural health care providers

Growth limitation

The increased lack of insurance cover on rural population has great impact in different sectors in the society together with the different organizations under those sectors. Among the sectors is health care whereby the rural health care providers are affected negatively by this increase. First and foremost the potential and health insurance status of the population determines the number of health care providers that can be found in a given area. When the number is minimal it means that the service providers will also be minimal since the number of patients to serve is minimal. When the case is the other way round it is possible to find many health care service providers within the same area. This is one of the negative impacts in health care service providers since it limits growth in provision of its services. (Gresenz et al, 2007)

Health insurance status of the population is the determinant of whether and how many and how much health care providers are paid for their services. When the health care providers provide high amounts of uncompensated care they continue to endanger the ability for continued service provision. This is the reason you find that in most rural areas there are heath care providers who set up health care services but in a short period of time they are closed down. (Gresenz et al, 2007)

Low profits

Most of the health care providers that are located in rural areas whereby there is large uninsured population earn low profits. The reason for this is that in most cases they provide these services uncompensated hence what they gain is minimal. The low profits in one way or the other they affect the quality of services provided to the patients. (Gresenz et al, 2007)

Mission and structure

The main mission of health care providers is to provide health care services to the society at affordable cost. This is because good health is essential to the people in the society since it increases productivity. However the mission has been highly affected by the increased cost of products as well as deteriorating economy. (Gresenz et al, 2007)

In order to achieve its mission health care service sector is divided in different sections that provide services for different health issues. However the mission is the same regardless of the services provided. (Gresenz et al, 2007)

Recommendations

In order to avoid the negative impacts facing different sectors and organizations affected by health insurance and at the same time minimize the increasing rates of the uninsured rural population there are things government, policy makers and organizations should do. (Xirasagar et al, 2005)

Sensitize the rural population

Most of the people in the rural areas not that they have no sufficient income to cater for health insurance, the major issue is that most of them do not know the importance and meaning of having health insurance policy. If they can be sensitized on the importance and where to obtain the policies the number of the insured would increase by a great percentage. (Xirasagar et al, 2005)

Reduce cost of health insurance

The cost of obtaining health insurance covers should be minimized to levels that even the common people in the remote rural areas can afford. This is because most of the people are limited by the income they get. Alternatively the health insurance provides should provide insurance covers that are less costly to cater for the low income earners. (Xirasagar et al, 2005)

Conclusion

Good health is essential for people in the society and for that reason health insurance coverage should be made available to all the people in the society including the large populations in the rural areas that are uninsured. The main reason is that lack of health insurance covers has continued to affect negatively different sectors and organizations in the society.

List of references

Gresenz, C., Rogowski, J. & Escarce, J. (2007, Health care markets, the safety net, and utilization of care among the uninsured. Health Services Research, 42(1 Part 1) 239- 264, 2)

Xirasagar, S., Stoskopf, C., Samuels, M., & Lin, H. (2005), Reducing the Numbers of the Uninsured: Policy Implications from State – Level Data Analysis. Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, 11(1), 72-78. 3)

Ziller, E. Coburn, A. Anderson, N., & Loux, S. (2008). Uninsured rural families, Journal of Rural Health, 24(1), 1-11.4)

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