Using the USA Framework to Meet the Needs of the Poor in our Communities

Within the United States, the number of people living in poverty continues to grow [1] and despite improvements in health care access due to the Affordable Care Act, those living in poor households continue to have disparities in access and health outcomes [2]. Although lack of education and insurance benefits may play a small part in these statistics, the working poor report more barriers to accessing preventative care and are less likely to receive care than those living above the poverty line [3,4]. Sadly, Bloch et al. [5] also found that primary care providers “lack...understanding of the lived reality of poverty” and have “prejudicial attitudes” which lead to “a failure to collect adequate data about patients’ social circumstances and to the development of inappropriate plans of care” (p. 1).