Health Care issue in the state of Kansas
The rural population in the US is declining due to allure of the urban lifestyle and reduced local jobs. Additionally, the rural communities experience many health issues like high prevalence of heart diseases, increased rates of obesity and cancer. More so, the population in the rural areas is characterised by deaths related to injury, diabetes and other chronic conditions. To a larger extend, the aforementioned facets have been contributed by challenges in accessing health care, insufficient resources for healthcare and limited number of physicians (Denny-Brown et al., 2011). These issues, though established as international issues, they have been identified in Kansas, which is a rural state in the US. The current paper will address the issue of health in Kansas State.
Kansas is the 15th largest state in US, yet it has only 99 departments of local health, which offer health services to 2.9 million people living in 105 counties. The counties are however, frontier, urban and rural (Denny-Brown et al., 2011). Kansas experiences a large variation in the capacity of public health. It has been faced by the challenge of maintaining the health care resources. In addition, the people in the rural area travel by car for more than even three kilometres to access medical services. As a result, the issues of health in Kansas are of concern to the state leadership and the community at large.
There is need for Kansas leadership assistance to offer assistance in recruiting healthcare providers, providing public health education and offering a solution to the vulnerable population. According to Meingast, Roosta and Sastry (2012), multifaceted solutions are imperative to any community. This can be the solution for the rural Kansas. There is need for additional physicians because their shortages in Kansas lead to unnecessary closures, which has been a barrier for the rural people to access the health care facilities.
There is also a concern over the vulnerable population in the area in terms of health care. Vulnerable population such as the elderly, the low-income earners and those with diverse cultures require different heath care. The rural population in Kansas is majorly composed of elderly people. The population has also increased because of diverse ethnic groups that have migrated to Kansas (Denny-Brown et al., 2011). A bigger population in the rural Kansas are poor and are rarely insured. Furthermore, they have not been receiving health care benefits through the employers because of discrepancies between the urban and rural rates of insurance. Thus, there is also need for policy change.
There is also need for public health education. The general community need to learn about healthy issues such as primary dental care, crisis management, smoking and nutrition. The solution can integrate home-based services, training and health education.
Lastly, there is need for community collaboration (Denny-Brown et al., 2011). The social organizations, community agencies and businesses are the biggest contributors of the community in Kansas and should collaborate to offer services to the area.
In conclusion, the health issues faced in Kansas are similar to those faced by other rural states in the US. Denny-Brown et al. (2011) assert that many social issues are intractable and that is their nature. Lack of health resources and poverty in Kansas should therefore, be solved. This will pave way for other states to receive the same care. There is need for tailoring health reform policies to the local needs. This act will account for changes and variations across the American states. The government should direct effort towards programs for public health education, support for the population that is vulnerable and recruitment of health care professional. Lastly, collaboration of agencies in the rural communities is incredibly prudent.
References
Denny-Brown, N., Gilman, B., Gimm, G., Ireys, H., & Croake, S. (2011). The Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment: Implications for National Health Care Reform. Cambridge, MA: Mathematica Policy Research.
Meingast, M., Roosta, T., & Sastry, S. (2012). Security and Privacy Issues with Health Care Information Technology. doi:10.1109/IEMBS.2006.260060