Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
more difficulties accessing care, later stage illness when gaining
access to care and less therapeutic interventions in comparison to
those individuals with insurance (de Looper and Lafortune 2009).
The un- and underinsured thus have poorer health outcomes in
general, being sicker when hospitalized and dying earlier than their
more insured counterparts (de Looper and Lafortune, 2009).
Further analysis shows too that across the OECD individuals with
higher socio-economic status tend to access more specialist, dental
and preventative services than those in lower socio-economic groups
(de Looper and Lafortune, 2009). That is, there is a tendency for
healthcare systems to be 'pro-rich' (de Looper and Lafortune, 2009).
A study conducted in Denmark showed that although less educated
people visited a GP more often than more educated people, they
were still less likely to access specialist and screening services
(de Looper and Lafortune, 2009). People in lower socio-economic
groups across the OECD are also more likely to report not accessing
care even though they needed it because of cost, waiting time or
distance to services (de Looper and Lafortune, 2009).
Given the range of existing health inequalities, questions for
health reform include how governments might respond to these
issues (Baum et al., 2009). Two factors identified include the need
for governments to support a health-promoting environment and for
general living conditions, rather than health services, to be improved
(Baum et al., 2009). Furthermore, some commentators even suggest
that simply investing in more high tech interventions only exacerbates
existing health inequalities, as evidence shows that the more affluent
members of a community have access to more services (Baum et al.,
2009). More to the point, they argue, the increasingly dominant idea
that individuals are responsible for their own health needs to be
re-evaluated in the light of persistent inequalities in healthcare
(Baum et al., 2009). For these commentators, such emphasis on
more and better treatment options is a function of a biomedical
model which presumes that the function of medicine is to cure the
already ill (Baum et al., 2009). By contrast, they argue, less emphasis
on new cures and more emphasis on prevention and structural
reform of the existing health system would ultimately produce better
health outcomes for more people (Baum et al., 2009).
