The Relationship Between Poverty and Health Care in America

Visiting the doctor has never been viewed as an enjoyable experience for clients. It is likely considered to be a necessary evil, something that must be done but is not pleasantly anticipated. Making the encounter between health care professional and client both helpful and therapeutic can be a challenge. This is especially true for those whose financial situation is precarious, meaning, one pay check away from being homeless. So not only does the client arrive for their scheduled appointment with the normal anxiety visiting the doctor brings; added to this is fear of a serious diagnosis, and the stress of finding the funds to pay for medical services, medications, and any follow-up visits that may be required. The extra expenses will put a greater strain on an already overburdened family budget. The first hint of the client’s tenuous financial position should be gleaned from the helping interview.

A helping interview is a conversation between a health care professional and a person in need of medical care and is a common tool of communication in any health care setting. Three components of the helping interview are 1) the orientation of the professional and the client to each other, 2) the identification of the client’s problem, 3) the resolution of the client’s problem (Tamparo & Lindh).

The orientation is the part of the helping interview where the focus will lie. Although the text book puts a great deal of importance to the medical assistant’s personal appearance, making small talk to put the client at ease, proper introductions, vocal tone, and so forth, it is important to remember that the orientation process is where the client’s ability to pay is ascertained. Cash, insurance or credit card information, and payment...

... middle of paper ...

...Lichter and Crowley).Low-income mothers are more likely to have low birth-weight babies, who are at greater risk than other babies for a variety of cognitive and emotional problems. In addition, poor children are more likely than other children to be exposed to toxic substances and other environmental health risks and to have less healthy diets. These greater health and environmental risks help explain the higher rates of asthma, diabetes, learning disabilities, and speech or hearing problems that limit the school attendance of poor children and interfere with their academic performance and physical activities. The percentage of poor children with such chronic health conditions increased between the mid-19880s and mid-1990s, and the gap between poor children and other children widened (Lichter and Crowley). As have the number of unwed mothers receiving public aid.