The Challenge of Healthcare Access — Why Coaching Matters Now

Part 1 of the “Coaching as a Bridge to Better Health” Series

🩺The Reality of Healthcare Access in 2025

Accessing healthcare today can feel like a maze with no clear exits. Rising costs, shrinking medical networks, and widespread provider burnout make it harder than ever to get timely, equitable care.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (2024), nearly half of U.S. adults report delaying or skipping care because of cost.¹ For people with historically marginalized identities, like Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and disabled communities, these barriers are even more significant.²

🤔What is healthcare access?

A diverse group of people sits in a healthcare waiting room, attentively reading and using tablets as they await their turns.

Healthcare access refers to the ability of individuals to obtain timely, affordable, and appropriate medical services. Often when clients discuss their experiences with healthcare access they talk about the Four As: Availability, Affordability, Acceptability, and Accommodation.

Let's break these down.

• Availability means that healthcare services exist within reasonable reach.

• Affordability ensures that costs do not prevent people from seeking care.

• Acceptability relates to cultural and social factors that influence whether people feel comfortable using services.

• Accommodation involves the organization of services to meet patients' needs, such as flexible hours or language support.

But healthcare access is not only about the Four As, as we like to describe them here, it’s also about the Ability to Engage. Having the focus, energy, and confidence to schedule appointments, ask questions, follow up, and make decisions that align with one’s well-being. When that process feels overwhelming, care often falls by the wayside.

🌉Coaching as a Bridge, Not a Substitute

Even the most motivated people can lose track of their health when life becomes complex or unpredictable.

Coaching doesn’t replace healthcare, it complements it. It’s the bridge that helps you turn medical recommendations into meaningful, sustainable action.

Transitions like moving off a parent’s insurance, starting a new job, relocating, retiring, or stepping into a caregiving role, often push healthcare down the priority list. In fact, the American Psychological Association (2022) found that more than 60% of adults cite stress as a reason for postponing preventive or follow-up care.³

For those managing chronic or complex health needs, the challenge multiplies. Coordinating specialists, navigating insurance, and keeping up with treatment plans can create decision fatigue. And for people facing systemic barriers—such as transportation issues, racial bias in care, or language inaccessibility—the process can feel almost impossible.

In these moments, what’s missing isn’t motivation—it’s structure and support. That’s where coaching comes in: not to replace healthcare, but to bridge the gap between what we know we need to do and how we actually do it.

Coaching is a collaborative partnership that helps clients identify values, clarify their goals, and follow through. Whether it’s a wellness coach supporting self-care or an executive coach helping prevent burnout, coaching strengthens the focus and resilience needed to take consistent action.

People who receive health coaching are significantly more likely to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors.⁴ Executive coaching has been shown to enhance psychological well-being and goal achievement, improving health outcomes indirectly.⁵

💡When to Talk About Health with Your Coach

Many people hesitate to bring up health-related goals with their coaches, worrying that it’s “not the right topic.” But health and well-being are foundational to every other form of success. Your ability to lead, create, and connect all depend on your capacity to care for your body and mind.

Whether you’re a college student managing new responsibilities, a professional navigating burnout, or someone balancing chronic illness with caregiving, your coach can help you explore:

• What’s getting in the way of staying on top of your health needs?

• What resources or routines would make care easier?

• How do your current boundaries, workload, or environment affect your health?

• What systems of support—personal, professional, or community-based—can help?

Scenarios where a coach might offer a supportive structured space include:

• Working with a coach to prepare for a new healthcare provider visit.

• A caregiver might use coaching sessions to set self-care boundaries.

• A leader might explore how chronic stress is affecting decision-making and relationships at work.

All of these conversations sit squarely within ethical, ICF-aligned coaching practice—supporting clients in making value-driven choices that sustain well-being.

🤝🏽Building a Health-Forward Mindset

As healthcare systems grow more complex and costs continue to rise, focusing on wellness and prevention is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Coaching provides a sustainable path to reclaiming agency over your health.

By fostering self-awareness and accountability, coaching helps clients reconnect with their goals and values. It’s not about perfection or productivity it’s about cultivating resilience and capacity. When people have structured, compassionate support, they’re more likely to stay engaged with healthcare, manage stress, and make choices that align with long-term well-being.

As research continues to show, health is not merely an individual achievement—it’s a social and systemic outcome. Coaching invites us to approach health not as a destination, but as an ongoing relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the systems we navigate.

📣Ready to Begin Your Journey?

At Conscious By Us, believe access to quality healthcare and wellness shouldn’t be a privilege, it’s a human right. We help changemakers, dreamers, and doers create lives rooted in authenticity, health, and inclusion. Our work is grounded in health equity, trauma-informed principles, and anti-capitalist values, recognizing that personal transformation cannot be separated from systemic realities. Our trauma-informed, SMARTIE goal-setting framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Inclusive, and Equitable; helps clients move beyond simple goal lists. Together, we identify real-world barriers and sustainable strategies to overcome them. Our approach is grounded in Self-Determination Theory, which emphasizes autonomy, competence, and connection, three elements that predict long-term success and well-being.

We also believe that cost should not prevent you from being healthy. Our Community Over Profit model removes barriers by offering sliding-scale pricing, payment plans, and barter or exchange options. We believe equitable access is restorative justice. Everyone deserves support that honors their humanity, regardless of income or circumstance.

Beyond coaching, Conscious By Us offers consulting, speaking engagements, and DEI content sensitivity reviews all designed to help individuals and organizations create environments where health, belonging, and equity thrive together. Whether you’re an individual seeking clarity, a leader striving to build inclusive systems, or an organization working to align with health equity principles, our approach bridges personal growth and systemic transformation.

👉🏽 Book a free discovery call today to explore how trauma-informed, equity-grounded coaching can help you bridge the gap between surviving and thriving.Visit Conscious By Us to learn more.

1. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2024). Health Tracking Poll: Cost and Access to Care.

2. CDC. (2023). Health Disparities by Race/Ethnicity, Income, and Disability in the United States.

3. American Psychological Association. (2022). Stress in America: The State of Our Nation.

4. Olsen, J. M., & Nesbitt, B. J. (2010). Health coaching to improve healthy lifestyle behaviors: An integrative review. American Journal of Health Promotion, 25(1), e1–e12.

5. Grant, A. M. (2014). The efficacy of executive coaching in health-related behavior change. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 7(2), 113–136.

6. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.