NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2
[Student Name]
Capella University
[Prof. Name]
September 2025
NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2: An overview of the selected economic issue
The United States has a long history of healthcare inequality. As the US population and immigration continue to rise, the lack of medical experts only helps to heighten the stigma. Despite the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are government-funded insurance programs, many Americans may not be qualified for them for a variety of reasons. This is demonstrated by the fact that 49% of Medicaid members are younger than 18 years old. In the upcoming years, this number will continue to rise. This adds to the disparities in healthcare access in America. In addition, many uninsured Americans acquired insurance to receive urgent care due to the COVID-19 outbreak. According to a study, during the recognized disenrollment period after the outbreak, the number of Americans without health insurance will keep increasing. The fact alone foretells that in the upcoming months and years, healthcare inaccessibility would only increase (Twersky, 2022).
Impact of Limited Access to Healthcare
According to NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2, working Americans occasionally have to pay astronomically high health insurance premiums because of the burden of rising healthcare costs brought on by inflation and payments to medical facilities, among other factors. Due to the high expense of these payments, some of them decide not to obtain health insurance. In my opinion, I ran across this dilemma early in my career. I had to make choices during this trying time, such as juggling health insurance with providing for my family, which highlights the value of a training needs assessment analysis in better preparing people and communities for such difficulties. This forced me to pay
cash for medical care whenever I needed urgent care or my family needed medical care, which emphasizes the necessity of a comprehensive needs analysis for change in healthcare finance. This scenario is more likely to be recognizable because it has been a common theme among my coworkers and classmates. Many people rush to the ER when acute illnesses arise because of the delayed health insurance, which prevents yearly physicals (Duijvestijn, Ardine de Wit, van Gils, and Wendel-Vos, 2023).
Justification for Economic Healthcare Choice
According to studies, those without health insurance are twice as likely as those who receive routine exams to have an urgent medical problem and wind up in the hospital. As a result, most of these people cannot afford the emergency care they got. The healthcare organization that provided the service is required to pay the full amount of the charges, which are often invoiced to collections. Over time, these regrettable but frequent circumstances result in increased healthcare costs. The gap in access to care increases along with healthcare expenses, highlighting the necessity of study to understand and address these disparities. The immigrants and their family members who want to receive medical care without payment are adding to the crisis of healthcare shortages, as stated in NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2. Unpaid medical bills ultimately absorb and contribute to the nation’s healthcare costs. Riley (2012).
Analysis of the Economic Healthcare Gap
Clinical Information Needs: A Concept Analysis
The cost of healthcare is the main reason why many in the US do not have access to it. According to recent surveys, the average yearly cost of healthcare in the United States is $13,000 per individual. In addition, the total cost of healthcare in the
United States is 4.3 trillion, and it will continue to rise beyond 2021.The disparities in healthcare access between individuals of various races, ethnicities, and origins cannot be ignored. Numerous immigrant families who enter the US illegally are able to get healthcare regardless of their financial situation, highlighting the need for analysis of the distribution and management of resources. As a needs analysis template, The United States spent about 1.5 trillion dollars in three years on net medical expenses for minority groups, including immigrant families, according to latest data from the Joint Center of Political and Financial Educations. This figure illustrates how minority groups’ access to healthcare is unequal, which drives increasing healthcare expenses in the United States (Riley 2012).
Lack of Access to Healthcare Must Be Addressed
Given that the number of people in America is growing yearly due to both natural births and immigration, the imbalance of healthcare access needs to be addressed. According to NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2, the primary barrier to accessing healthcare in the United States is the expense of healthcare. Due to the exorbitant premiums they pay to their companies, many Americans are unable to pay for their health insurance. Each uninsured person consequently needs emergency medical care when routine health examinations are exceeded, highlighting the significance of a comprehensive needs analysis in resolving healthcare access gaps. In order to break the vicious cycle that will unavoidably cause healthcare costs to continue rising and make accessing it increasingly more difficult, it is imperative that the lack of access to healthcare be addressed. Many people nowadays have unhealthy lives that involve poor dental and vision health as well as general health difficulties because they lack
access to healthcare. According to Paolini, Vereen, Taghiani, and Chitre (2023), this makes it impossible to prevent or control disease, avoid avoidable impairment, and in certain circumstances, early deaths.
Potential Implementation and Change Plans
Expanding the reach of government-funded insurance programs, like Medicaid, could help address the lack of healthcare by covering more adults and children and ensuring they receive essential treatment and routine checkups. Even though this plan might result in extra expenses, like higher taxes, it would be a step in the right direction to address the nation’s healthcare shortage. Research indicates that a significant portion of Americans, including children and the elderly, would have access to healthcare through the Medicaid expansion. According to recent estimates, about 32 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2020, despite the fact that all 32 million were either employed or dependents of employees (Lee and Winters, 2022).
According to NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2, many people in remote areas may find it difficult to get healthcare due to transportation issues. This would suggest that most residents of these towns are unwilling or unable to travel hundreds of miles for medical care. One solution to this problem would be to extend telehealth to offer broadcast and triage services to rural populations. For instance, local pharmacies in remote areas can provide medications to treat common ailments like sinus infections, colds, and migraines. The American government may also look at funding mobile clinics that may provide services to people living in rural areas. Mobile clinics can provide people in remote areas with general health examinations, vaccinations, injections, and basic treatment medications, as stated in NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2. The rural
population that needs emergency care right away will also benefit from the construction of free-standing emergency centers (Coombs, Campbell, and Caringi, 2022).
Forecasted Results and Growth Prospects
It is projected that the Medicaid expansion program, which is being implemented in all US states, will provide access to healthcare for thousands more Americans. In turn, increasing access to healthcare would increase the number of children, young people, and senior citizens who receive regular checks. Preventive care and routine medical examinations would likely lower the number of emergency room visits and illnesses. Patients can talk to doctors and nurses and ask for their assistance with their conditions through telehealth services. Patients will be able to obtain healthcare services more rapidly and save the distance they must go. This will increase the amount of critical care visits and emergency appointments for all rural populations. Last but not least, there would be independent emergency rooms in rural areas where people in need could get vital care (Humayun, Almufareh, Al-Quayed, Sulaiman, and Alatiyyah, 2023).
Economic Considerations
Recent studies have shown that the lack of access to healthcare can be examined using a range of socioeconomic criteria. After talking about race and minority groups, such as the reality that African Americans live and earn less than white Americans, it doesn’t need to be improved any further. Minority populations, especially African Americans, have access to healthcare nationwide through the Medicaid expansion program. The minority in the United States is composed of a wide variety of ethnic groups, even if this is just one example.
Implementing health expanded coverage would make it easier for minority groups to receive urgent, follow-up, and routine medical treatment. Medicaid expansion would provide access to healthcare for low-income families, even though minority groups are frequently low-income households.
Low-income families and minority groups, such as Native Alaskans, American Indians, African Americans, and the majority of others, would also have reasonable access to telehealth services. Furthermore, as noted in NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2, telehealth services would be very beneficial to patients in remote areas because they are convenient and do not require them to travel great distances. Patients who have little or no access to healthcare organizations would have less racial and cultural differences because to telehealth. The availability of healthcare services like telemedicine and remote emergency rooms allows any patient to receive medical care quickly, regardless of their ethnicity or ability to travel. This would bring minority groups and low-income families closer to healthcare and lessen the economic gap between them (Bailey et al., 2021).
Conclusion
In the US, access to healthcare is becoming a bigger problem, per NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2. The lack of easy access is largely the fault of minority groups and low-income persons for a number of reasons. The disparity in America is made worse by the fact that elderly people in rural areas typically lack access to transportation to a medical institution. Anyone who is unable to attend a doctor’s appointment in person can use telehealth to make advantage of FaceTime and Zoom calls. The doctor can properly evaluate the patient’s condition in the context of telehealth and decide if the patient need urgent care or just a prescription, for example. To improve the state of healthcare inaccessibility in the United States, the government, healthcare officials, medical professionals, and healthcare executives must collaborate to guarantee that everyone, regardless of color, gender, or ethnicity, has access to healthcare.
References
Bailey, J. E., Gurgol, C., Pan, E., Njie, S., Emmett, S., Gatwood, J., Gauthier, L., Rosas, L. G., Kearney, S. M., Samantha, K. R., Lawrence, R. H., Margolis, K. L., Osunkwo, I., Wilfley, D., & Shah, V. O. (2021). Early patient-centered outcomes research experience with the use of telehealth to address disparities: Scoping review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, https://doi.org/10.2196/28503
Coombs, N. C., Campbell, D. G., & Caringi, J. (2022). A qualitative study of rural healthcare providers’ views of social, cultural, and programmatic barriers to healthcare access. BMC Health Services Research, 22, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07829-2
Duijvestijn, M., Ardine de Wit, G., van Gils, P.,F., & Wendel-Vos, G. (2023). Impact of physical activity on healthcare costs: A systematic review. BMC Health Services Research, 23, 1- 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09556-8
Humayun, M., Almufareh, M. F., Al-Quayed, F., Sulaiman, A. A., & Alatiyyah, M. (2023). Improving healthcare facilities in remote areas using cutting-edge technologies. Applied Sciences, 13(11), 6479. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116479
Lee, J. Y., & Winters, J. V. (2022). State Medicaid expansion and the self-employed. Small Business Economics, 59(3), 925-954. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00559-5
Palombini, M., Vereen, T., Taghiani, J., & Chitre, T. (2023). Building a framework for a more inclusive healthcare system. Telehealth and Medicine Today, 8(3) https://doi.org/10.30953/thmt.v8.414
Riley W. J. (2012). Health disparities: Gaps in access, quality and affordability of medical care. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 123, 167– 174.
Twersky, S. E. (2022). Do state laws reduce uptake of Medicaid/CHIP by U.S. citizen children in immigrant families: Evaluating evidence for a chilling effect. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01651-2
