Assignment about Health Insurance

Running head: HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION CAPSTONE PROJECT
BARRIERS IN IMPROVING THE ACCESS OF HEALTHCARE FOR UNINSURED
CHILDREN IN VIRGINIA
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

INTRODUCTION1
Introduction
Health Insurance is a significant factor for reducing the out-of-pocket expenditure for
any health treatment or medications. Health insurance is for every group of individuals and
can bring effective competitive advantages comparing to uninsured individuals (Sommers,
Gawande & Baicker, 2017). The competitive advantages can be free preventive cares such as
vaccines or checkups and protect the individual from any unexpected higher treatment or
medical cost. Therefore, health insurance for children is beneficial and important for
receiving and availing the necessary healthcare services. The insured children would reduce
the financial burden in their family and would have access to an effective care from the health
system.
The rate of uninsured children is causing a major problem, they are not availing or
accessing an effective healthcare comparing to the insured children. It has been found that
within the year of 2016-2018, the rate of uninsured children were continuously increasing and
it is leading in reducing the enrollment of children for public coverage program (Alker, &
Roygardner, 2020). There are few health insurance programs that can be beneficial for the
children living in the Virginia. Medicaid along with the children’s health insurance program
(CHIP) are the major player in providing insurance for the children. It provides low cost or
no cost scope for the eligible children in the Virginia (Kenney et al., 2015). The coverage
would be benefited for children in routine checkup, any dental care or immunization for an
optimal health outcome of the children. However, Virginia community health care has
launched an effective care program for uninsured individuals that includes children. The
individual or parent of children needs to pay according to their income level for accessing
checkup, treatment whenever necessary, immunization, and any other health care services.

INTRODUCTION2
Access to healthcare for uninsured children in Virginia is a continual evolving issue.
For improving access to healthcare, it is important to understand and identify the causal
factor or barriers that are restricting the access to delivery of care. Initially, it is important to
understand the barriers that are restricting to avail of insurance for children. The first factor of
the barrier could be the different eligibility criteria for children and parent or adult. For
illustration, if the parent has different income eligibility criteria, then children may have
different criteria of citizenship or any documentation issues (Leininger & Levy, 2015).
Another element of barrier could be children who have undocumented parents faces the
major complication in enrolling into the insurance coverage. Children not living with
biological parents and rather reside with grandparents or with foster family would have
complexities in availing the insurance. Lastly, immigrant children are the most common
barrier to avail the insurance for accessing an effective delivery of care.
The major barriers to accessibility of care for uninsured children in Virginia are due to
multiple factors. The first and foremost factor is the lack of insurance due to any
circumstances or consequences. As the insurance would ease in accessing effective
qualitative care from the health system, uninsured children themselves for not being insured
is the major reason or barrier for availing the healthcare services in Virginia. Apart from the
insurance, the underserved area is the major barrier for providing access to care. Around half
of the Virginia community, including the inner city area along with the rural localities, have
very few healthcare providers for the community or the individuals (Vhcf.org, 2020). Limited
healthcare providers would not meet the need for health care services such as primary care or
any behavioral care. Therefore, Virginia health care foundation has launched and
implemented many practices that would focus on improving the access of healthcare services
for the uninsured individuals and these individuals also covers children (Virginia Department
of Social Services, 2020).