Increasing Healthcare Accessibility within Rural/Urban Idaho
By: Juan Leon
Tags: Idaho, Healthcare, Health Insurance, Accessibility

Photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

Why is Increasing Healthcare Accessibility Important?

Access to healthcare is important because it provides individuals the ability to seek out treatment if they are sick or experiencing symptoms that need to be checked out by a healthcare professional. However, there are people that don’t have the luxury to seek out treatment due to a lack of health insurance, transportation or even a close proximity to healthcare providers. Individuals that usually face this concern are people within rural towns because of how far healthcare providers may be. When it comes to the State of Idaho there are many rural towns that have individuals that aren’t able to access health care providers, which means there is an increase of mortality rates within those small towns. However, there are also people living within urban areas that face the same concern. There needs to be change done to ensure that all individuals within the State of Idaho are getting the accessibility to health care that they deserve.

The reason that I chose this cause to conduct research on was because I myself grew up in rural town in Idaho and understand that healthcare accessibility is an issue that needs to be addressed more often. I even had the chance to speak to individuals that work at St. Alphonsus in the Ada/Canyon County of Idaho and how they are addressing the same issue of health accesssbility. I utilized the resources that I had present to me while researching this cause and how it could be addressed furthermore. While in a class at Boise State University I conducted research regarding the topic and proposed solutions to increase accessibility to healthcare.

What can be done?

When it comes to healthcare there needs to be changes to ensure that people are getting the help that they deserve. A solution that I proposed was to utilize health care vans that would provide a variety of healthcare services to individuals within the State of Idaho whether they are in rural or urban areas. There is more of a target on those individuals within rural towns as opposed to urban because of how far they are in proximity to healthcare providers. These healthcare vans would provide individuals with resources like legal, dental, healthcare, etc. It would have individuals that speak a variety of languages with Spanish being a top choice because a majority of individuals within rural towns are Hispanic/Latinx and don’t have access to health insurance. These are primarily individuals that are within agriculture. When it comes to providing individuals the ability to talk to healthcare providers in their native language it allows for trust to be built within the community and organizations. When providing healthcare services there needs to be education done, as well, to allow for there to be more of an understanding of certain diseases/complications.

Another proposed solution to get people the healthcare services they needed was through providing a mobile care unit platform that would allow for individuals to be taken to the nearest healthcare provider. This would help in connecting them to a nearby provider and allow for them to schedule out appointments and transportation to get them to those appointments ahead of time. It would also allow them to see when mobile care units will be going to various rural/urban areas.

Now that we have an understanding of the proposed solutions how will the community learn of them?

When it comes to rural communities within Idaho and their smaller populations there needs to be a variety of outlets that need to be tapped into to reach a wide array of the people within these small towns. These are primarily through social media, word of mouth, and surprisingly radio. Radio seems to be the best form of media to utilize when reaching the Hispanic/Latinx population within Idaho communities due to not everyone having social media platforms.

When it comes to the people within the State of Idaho how do they compare with their access to healthcare?

How do people within the State of Idaho measure up?

While in the College of Innovation course (Analytics for Design) at Boise State University I conducted a survey to understand the demographics of those within Idaho and their access to healthcare. I distributed the survey through a variety of social media platforms, which included Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I wanted to reach a variety of individuals to be able to get a better understanding of the population within Idaho and whether or not they had health insurance.

This survey yielded data that was used to understand more regarding healthcare accessibility within rural/urban Idaho. The hypothesis that I had initially before the survey was distributed was “Those without health insurance will primarily not have it due to high cost and will live in more rural areas as opposed to urban.” However, this wasn’t quite true because high cost was a key factor that was noticed within both areas but there were more people in urban areas without health insurance than those in rural.

Data Provided by Juan Leon of Boise State University

The data that I was able to retrieve was based on the 90 respondents that I received from my survey results. When it was based on the location within the State of Idaho and whether or not people had health insurance there were far more people without health insurance in urban areas. Another thing that was noticed was that there were a lot of individuals that took the survey in urban cities as opposed to those within rural cities. However, they both still yielded individuals that didn’t have health insurance. This showed that while people within rural areas have the proximity issue to health providers both locations experience healthcare accessibility issues.

Another important facet to understand from the respondents of the survey was the reason behind why they don’t have health insurance. The data yielded that the biggest reason that they didn’t have health insurance was based on cost being too high for individuals, 64%. This was followed by those not currently qualifying for health care programs (Medicaid or financial assistance) and don’t feel that health insurance coverage is needed at 14.3%. Lastly, that the process of enrolling was too difficult, 7.1%. This data concluded that the hypothesis regarding why people didn’t have health insurance was accepted.

Data Provided by Juan Leon of Boise State University

When it came to the data another side that was important to understand was the background of the individuals that took the survey and their ethnicity/race. When it comes to health insurance this can play a factor at understanding what individuals experience more issues of healthcare accessbility. It yielded that those without health insurance identified as Hispanic/Latino or White. This could of also been due to the survey receiving a lot of responses from individuals that identified as either Hispanic/Latino or White.

Data Provided by Juan Leon of Boise State University

I had another question regarding the findings and how age & gender identity play a factor with health insurance. When it came to the data it showed that there were more female-identifying individuals with/without health insurance. However, this data could be skewed because there were more female-identifying individuals that took the survey as opposed to other gender identities. It was also shown that it was primarily younger-aged individuals within their 18–25 age range that didn’t have health insurance.

Data Provided by Juan Leon of Boise State University

When it came to the data that was analyzed from the survey responses I wanted to see what individuals would think about having a platform that would bring them healthcare to their location. It was shown that out of the 90 responses to this question that there were 67 that would be interested in the platform with a “yes” and “maybe” and 23 that responded with “no.”

Data Provided by Juan Leon of Boise State University

Conclusion

When it came to the overall data from the survey it showed that while rural individuals within the State of Idaho have more need to receive healthcare accessibility services the same can be said for urban areas. It was shown that the current cost of health insurance is too high for individuals within the State of Idaho but could run true for most people outside of Idaho, as well. This shows that there needs to be change done to ensure that people are able to get the healthcare that they deserve. When it comes to the next steps that need to be done to help provide individuals with the resources they need is that there needs to be change done at the local and state level to fund programs that provide health care coverage to those in need and especially to those that don’t qualify under government programs. As we look towards the future, we can hope to see more change being done within rural/urban areas within Idaho and more health care vans in areas with higher need for health coverage.