Accessibility and availability of healthcare services and facilities in the U. S.is a challengeto some ethnic groups, such as Asians Americans.
Low socioeconomic position is one of the barriers that hinder this group from accessing health insurance. This problem has been caused by insufficient skills and language failure, that creates a challenge for Asians to work in jobs that extend health insurance to employees since they cannot afford private insurance (Fioratou et al., 2018, p. 2).Although the healthcare sector has made significant development, uninsured Asians Americans still face cultural, structural, and language barriers. Asians living in the U.S.facecultural barriers, which hinder them from accessing healthcare services. According to Shah (2016), the issue is caused by health care providers’ cultural incompetency, which makes Asians uncomfortable to discuss issues regarding their sicknesses, such asterminal illnesses and sexual health. Hence, cultural competence of nurses is vital towards patients’ satisfaction and confidence in the healthcare.
Structural barriers are common among Asians. Majority of this population live in isolated societies. The living conditions affect their movement to the healthcare facilities due to high transport costs, poor links to transport facilities, and transport delays, which might lead to missed appointments (Fioratou et al., 2018, p. 2.). Ultimately, these challenges result to substandard health outcome and increased health costs.
Furthermore, language barriers are common among the Asian Americans. (Fioratou et al., 2018, p. 2). Therefore, it is important for healthcare facilities to engage language interpreters and cultural competent nurses to reduce language barriers.
References
Shah, N. (2016). Challenges in uncovering and addressing health disparities among Asian Americans. In-Training: Stories from Tomorrow’s Physicians, 2. Retrieved from http://in-training.org/challenges-uncovering-addressing-health-disparities-among-asian-americans-11116 Fioratou, E., Sian, G., & Daniels, K. (2018). A qualitative study into the perceived barriers of accessing healthcare among a vulnerable population involved with a community centre in Romania. International Journal for Equity in Health, 17( 41), 1- 13. doi: 10.1186/s12939-018-0753-9