The Burden of Healthcare on Single Mothers

A large part of today's population is made up of single parent homes and statistics show this phenomenon is on the rise. Around 90% of this group are made up of single mothers. The standard of living for these single mother homes is often remarkably lower than that of two parent homes and because of this, healthcare related issues of the parent are neglected. With the number of single parent homes on the rise, so is the issue of how to help these parents receive proper healthcare.

Mothers of single parent homes have more responsibilities in aspects like time, energy, and money and all three are consumed twice as quickly when the responsibility isn't being shared by a second parent in the household.

There are two major factors that can be seen as the cause of a lack of healthcare among single mothers; time and money. Often single mothers don't have time to make healthcare related appointments due to having work or be with the kids. They need somewhere to go that is convenient and doesn't require a large chunk of their time. The second factor, money, plays the largest role. Many single mothers do not have health insurance. Because of this they must forgo what could be considered preventative medicine, like checkups, and only go in when absolutely necessary. Also, when having to choose between either getting healthcare for themselves or for their children, they will get healthcare for their children.

Many single mothers view options of healthcare as a luxury and are forced to use it only in cases of emergency, and rely on the emergency rooms and free clinics. Cash benefits these single parent homes receive is not enough to allow them healthcare provisions so outside of an emergency they do not use healthcare services.

There are organizations that do exist to help fill the gap left between government help and employment that doesn't offer insurance. One such organization is a nonprofit called WellCare Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona. Their mission is to provide free, continuous, integrated healthcare to single working mothers and their children in need. An organization such as this allows a one stop for healthcare for both the mother and child. And because it is offered as a continuous healthcare provider a relationship and history begins to form between physicians and patients, allowing the physician to offer better and more thorough medical care.

The conceptions of healthcare by single mothers is its too expensive, time consuming, and can only be used in emergencies. Whereas this is a very real problem, there are organizations and opportunities in which healthcare can be more readily available to single mother homes. The problem is a lack of communication about these resources to single mothers in a way that is convenient to them and will actually reach single parent homes, not just the people already using healthcare facilities.