Healthcare Inaccessibility in the United States of America (USA)

Research Proposal for Healthcare Inaccessibility
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Research Proposal for Healthcare Inaccessibility
Title
My research proposal focuses on healthcare inaccessibility in the United States of America (USA).
Introduction
The primary purpose of the research proposal is to understand why not all people can access proper healthcare services and address those challenges. All individuals have the constitutional right to life. However, the most significant problem is that not everyone can access proper healthcare services in the USA. Medical expenses are high and continue to increase, making it challenging for all Americans to receive proper medical services when the need arises. In that light, solutions to healthcare inaccessibility need to be implemented so that the majority of people can lead healthy and longer lives. The research proposal will show how discrimination against specific communities, physicians’ shortage, the lack of health insurance, and transportation problems lead to healthcare inaccessibility.
Project Background
The rate of uninsured Americans keeps rising gradually, particularly due to the current challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which adversely affected the economy of the USA. For instance, approximately 8.5% of individuals, or 27.5 million have no health insurance in 2018. In 2017, uninsured Americans were 7.9% or 25.6 million (Berchick, Barnett, & Upton, 2019). Private health insurance was more prevalent in 2018 than public insurance. Individuals with private health insurance were about 67.3% compared to 34.4% with public health insurance (Berchick, Barnett, & Upton, 2019). The number of people using Medicaid continues to plummet since numerous healthcare facilities have limits or discourage the use of public health insurance. In reality, some healthcare institutions prefer cash due to the problems associated with claiming funds from public health insurance. On that note, some individuals with public health insurance cannot access medical services from healthcare providers of their choice.
Proposed Project
The research will focus on how the issue of healthcare inaccessibility affect Americans and suggest feasible solutions that can be implemented to solve it. There exist various factors that contribute to healthcare inaccessibility, which will be discussed in detail after the approval of this research proposal. First, many Americans do not have health insurance. Those who get lucky and get Medicaid cannot access medical services from the health institutions of their choice. In most cases, some private hospitals do not accept to serve Americans with public health insurance and prefer cash payment. On the contrary, the majority of middle-income earners, unemployed, and low-income earners cannot afford to pay premiums for private health insurance. Second, some communities or demographics are stigmatized or discriminated against making it challenging for them to get proper healthcare services. As such, people from such groups prefer to stay at home when they are sick instead of visiting hospitals where they know that they will be mishandled. Third, the shortage of heal...