Access to care: where are the holes in the net? The plight of the uninsured.
The issue of access to health care has re-emerged on the national health care scene. Is health care accessible to those who need it, and why has this issue again risen to receive national attention? The three current indices of access to health care, the number of uninsured individuals, utilization of health care services, and health status, have revealed conflicting and insufficient data on the access to health care. However, they have revealed no major increase in the size of the problem. The renewed interest in the access problem stems from the emphasis on prudent buyer concepts by all of the major purchasers of health care and the resulting switch from implicit to explicit financing of health care--especially the health care of the uninsured.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000639:trends*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008489:Medical Indigency; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States