What barriers are there to Primary Health Care, even though some people have medical insurance schemes?
As you have undoubtedly heard, health
insurance is an insurance scheme/coverage that covers the cost of medical and
surgical fees of an individual. It is important to note that not everyone can
afford the health care coverage cost. They may be so high that many may
struggle to make payment. On top of that people must wait months to renew their insurance
schemes if they had expired. This is only just the tip of iceberg as to the
many barriers experienced in primary health care insurance schemes.
There are different types of primary health
care barriers: financial,
structural and cognitive . These barriers can result in lack of treatment and late
presentation to care. This can result in poor health outcome disparities. The
financial constraints have the biggest impact on people's lives especially the
ones who do not have insurance schemes. People who live in rural areas might
not have enough funds to buy prescription medication; transport might be too
expensive for them; they can miss their appointments, and this could lead to
poor illness management. This can make financial constraints a big problem.
If the costs of primary health care keep on
getting expensive, people who cannot afford it will probably have to suffer.
People will have to learn how to live with their illness, and there could be an
increase in deaths. This would probably be in the poor communities. People in
poor communities will be most likely affected, not just because they don’t have
the money, but because of how far away they are from medical help and because
they may not be able to afford the medication they need.
