Changing the U.S. Health Care System
Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management
Chapter One
IMPROVING ACCESS
TO CARE IN AMERICA
Individual and Contextual Indicators
Ronald M. Andersen
Pamela L. Davidson
This chapter presents basic trends as well as research and policy issues related
to health care access. We define access as actual use of personal health services
and everything that facilitates or impedes their use. It is the link between
health services systems and the populations they serve. Access means not only visiting
a medical care provider but also getting to the right services at the right time
to promote improved health outcomes. Conceptualizing and measuring access is
the key to understanding and making health policy in a number of ways: (1) predicting
use of health services, (2) promoting social justice, and (3) improving effectiveness
and efficiency of health service delivery.
The chapter presents a conceptual framework for understanding the mu ... read full excerpt from Changing the U.S. Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management ebook
