Virginia: Barriers Impacting Healthcare for Uninsured Children

This capstone project report investigates the critical issue of healthcare access for uninsured children in Virginia. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of health insurance and the increasing rates of uninsured children, emphasizing the role of Medicaid and CHIP in providing coverage. The report then identifies various barriers to accessing healthcare, categorized into financial and non-financial aspects. Financial barriers include the cost of care, while non-financial barriers encompass administrative hassles, lack of information, language barriers, and stigma. The report underscores the need to address these barriers to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes for uninsured children in Virginia, offering a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potential solutions within the healthcare system. It references multiple sources and provides a detailed analysis of the problem.

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:

1INTRODUCTION
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.

2INTRODUCTION
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).

3INTRODUCTION
Stigma can be considered as a major barrier in accessing the healthcare services, and
this behavior could also reflect the attitude towards the treatment (Crouch et al., 2014).
Another barrier could be the medical cost as the uninsured children would not be entitled to
accessing free treatment or any health services. The financial barrier of uninsured children’
families is another form of barrier. Other barriers could involve socio-cultural norms, or any
language barriers would also lead in the accessing of healthcare. The immigrant children’
families can face the language barrier in accessing the care for their children. Lack of
knowledge and awareness is another element of the barrier. The lack of awareness could lead
to not availing the insurance along with not aware of any healthcare system that promotes
healthcare services for the uninsured children in Virginia (Flores et al., 2015). The waiting
time is a general barrier for every group of individual in accessing healthcare. The wait time
in any healthcare settings or hospital could be more or less according to the operational
activity as each healthcare organization operation differs from each other. For uninsured
children, the wait time becomes another issue in accessing qualitative care. Administration
hassle is another barrier, and it can be both for the accessing of healthcare services as well as
for enrolling children in any of the insurance schemes. This hassle may include the necessary
documents or any other basic issues such as transportation that is necessary for availing
insurance or qualitative care.
Thus, it can be understood that there are multiple elements of barriers that lead to poor
access to healthcare for uninsured children in Virginia. These elements or factors of a barrier
can be under two major subheading that is: the financial barrier and non-financial barriers.
The financial barrier includes the cost as the major barrier, and the non-financial barrier
would include all the administration issues, lack of information and knowledge. Therefore,
for effective delivery of care for uninsured children, it is significant to address these barriers

4INTRODUCTION
and overcome with an effective model of delivery care. This model of care would specifically
work or address the needs and demand of the uninsured children of Virginia.
Even with the useful and relevant information about the health system and the
delivery of care to individuals, there would be few or minimum barriers that would hinder the
delivery of care. Identifying the barrier and managing the barrier is a continual process; it
would improve the overall health quality of the community and enhance the optimal health
outcome.

5INTRODUCTION
References
Alker, J., & Roygardner, L. (2020). The Number of Uninsured Children Is On the
Rise [Ebook] (pp. 1-19). georgetown.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2020, from
https://ccf.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Uninsured-Kids-Report.pdf.
Crouch, S. R., Waters, E., McNair, R., Power, J., & Davis, E. (2014). Parent-reported
measures of child health and wellbeing in same-sex parent families: A cross-sectional
survey. BMC public health, 14(1), 635. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-635
Flores, G., Lin, H., Walker, C., Lee, M., Portillo, A., Henry, M., ... & Massey, K. (2016). A
cross-sectional study of parental awareness of and reasons for lack of health insurance
among minority children, and the impact on health, access to care, and unmet
needs. International journal for equity in health, 15(1), 44.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0331-y
Kenney, G. M., Haley, J. M., Anderson, N., & Lynch, V. (2015). Children eligible for
Medicaid or CHIP: who remains uninsured, and why?. Academic pediatrics, 15(3),
S36-S43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.01.009
Leininger, L., & Levy, H. (2015). Child health and access to medical care. The Future of
children/Center for the Future of Children, the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, 25(1), 65.
Sommers, B. D., Gawande, A. A., & Baicker, K. (2017). Health insurance coverage and
health—what the recent evidence tells us. N Engl J Med, 377(6), 586-593.
Vhcf.org. (2020). Virginia Health Care Foundation | Underserved Areas. Vhcf.org.
Retrieved 16 April 2020, from

6INTRODUCTION
https://www.vhcf.org/who-and-how-we-help/workforce-initiatives/underserved-
areas/.
Virginia Department of Social Services. (2020). Finding Affordable Health Care in Virginia
(pp. 1-2). Virginia Department of Social Services. Retrieved 16 April 2020, from
https://www.dss.virginia.gov/files/division/bp/medical_assistance/intro_page/
finding_affordable/finding_affordable_healthcare_9-25-13.pdf.