In a time of ongoing flux – including pandemic aftershocks and record economic inflation – it’s no surprise that Americans face a more complex path to healthcare than ever. Not only do people start out on an uneven playing field, the barriers they face along the way are far from evenly distributed. That’s why the latest report from the WHY Group in collaboration with the Multicultural Practice, The Path to Health: Shifting and Inequitable Hurdles to Care, focuses an equity lens on healthcare sector challenges, illuminating growing and uneven hurdles to care while illustrating steps our healthcare clients can take to mitigate them. 

WHY’s ongoing research has found that healthcare affordability and access are consistently among the top issues of concern for Americans in general. But this new report reveals that the specific hurdles and layers of complexity patients face in healthcare are shaped by three intersecting variables: identities, resources, and responsibilities. The effects of healthcare bias and inequitable access are well documented, but no person is just one thing. We can’t consider elements like race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation without also considering the exponential impact of other factors like living environment, financial resources, or caregiving responsibilities. This intersectional approach – powered by a study that was boosted to be fully representative with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, age, and insurance status – exemplifies Horizon’s “DEI in our DNA” philosophy.

The report focuses on five hurdles to quality, inclusive, and accessible healthcare, including how people’s intersecting variables shape their barriers to care and steps that brands/orgs can take to address them:

• Finances/insurance
• Finding a trusted provider
• Getting an appointment
• Getting to the appointment
• Interacting with a provider

Click ‘Download PDF’ below to access the full report.