Purpose

This assignment is intended to help you learn to do the following: 

• Describe how healthcare services are accessed and delivered in the United States.
• Analyze the economic forces that drive the delivery of healthcare.
• Analyze the economic forces that affect decision-making in healthcare delivery.

Overview

In this assignment, you will identify and discuss issues related to the barriers to accessing and using healthcare. The first part of the assignment requires you to study the required readings. The second part of the assignment requires you to engage in scholarly research to address barriers to healthcare for certain populations.

Action Items

1. Complete the Module 1 Readings prior to working on this assignment. Document your thoughts as you read.
2. Conduct additional research for the following issues. Use the resources at the Franklin University Library (Links to an external site.) to obtain at least three relevant, scholarly sources.
   • One would expect people with poorer health status to utilize more healthcare services than people with better health status. That is not the case. Utilization is lower for people with poor health status.
     • What would account for this difference?
     • What are the health status effects of delaying or deferring care?
     • What are the effects on society?
     • Who are the uninsured?
   • What options do people without health insurance – public or private – have to obtain healthcare services. From your perspective, are the options adequate? Justify your answer.
   • Which of the following barriers to access to health services – geographic, physical, temporal, socio-cultural, or financial – have the greatest impact on access to healthcare services? Identify other barriers to accessing healthcare services.
3. Write a three- to four-page paper in which you address each of the items that you researched. Include your notes from the readings as well.
   • You must incorporate research into your paper from at least three relevant, research article and resources.
   • Follow all applicable APA Guidelines (Links to an external site.) regarding in-text citations, list of cited references, and document formatting for this paper. Failure to properly cite and reference sources constitutes plagiarism.
   • The title page and reference list are not included in the page count for this paper.