Fix health care inequities exposed by COVID
A year ago, before the world had heard of COVID-19 or collectively tracked hospital beds and ventilators, I could have talked about the problems many South Texans face accessing quality health care.
The pandemic highlighted an uncomfortable truth many people already knew: Disease doesn’t discriminate. Our health care system does.
I see evidence of this in my patients. Some are able to access preventive care, follow guidelines, take medications and follow up with continued treatment.
Other patients are no less receptive to medical care, but must overcome barriers in their way, such as a lack of health insurance, overwhelming medication costs or inability to get to an appointment. In the pandemic era, some don’t have access to electronics that enable telemedicine visits.
COVID-19’S spread in Texas has infected the young and old, the prominent and the disadvantaged. The health outcomes diverged.
Data analyzed by the Texas Medical Society show that Hispanic and Black patients on Medicare were more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 infections than their white counterparts.
As our state tries to control the virus’s spread, we know the battle for equity in health care won’t end with the vaccine.
Texas isn’t the poorest state in the country by far, but it has the highest percentage of uninsured residents among all 50 states. These people have their fight for health care cut out for them. As we prepare for vaccine distribution, we must take a closer look at what prevents people of color from receiving quality health care.
If we want to serve everyone equitably, we need to know the specific barriers to better health. We must ask ourselves: Will we stand by as our marginalized community members continue to suffer and die at a greater rate? Or will we search for reasons behind the disparities and work toward creating equity?
Throughout Bexar County, 11 percent of adults live with chronic
lung disease. Low-income people in Texas are more than twice as likely to suffer from COPD.
More than 1.3 million Texans have survived COVID-19 infections. Only time will show us how many will develop long-term complications from the virus, but we have already seen the rosters of patients needing long-term lung care grow.
Many of these lung diseases are incurable. For people without easy access to health care, pulmonary conditions often go undiagnosed, progressing to chronic conditions before these people seek treatment.
We may not be able to fix everything, but we can build trust and increase access. To do that, we need to ask questions.
Why can some patients access
health care resources, but others cannot?
Is there a problem with trusting health care providers?
Do we truly treat patients from all backgrounds the same?
How can we eliminate roadblocks?
South Texas is fortunate to be part of a coast-to-coast search for answers. The CHEST Foundation, a national nonprofit organization focused on lung health, launched a nationwide listening tour. Last night, we listened and learned from a group of South Texans. The event, held virtually, brings together community members, clinicians and civic leaders to discuss barriers to good health and managing lung disease.
Patients who have fought for improved care will have a platform for sharing their stories. The conversation will focus on people from communities with the greatest health disparities who have chronic lung disease. Our hope is to use the candid dialogue as a guide for specific actions that are needed.
At the conclusion of these listening tours, the CHEST Foundation will release findings from all five events that quantify the struggles shared and identify the challenges unique to each community. Together, we aim to develop solutions. A newly launched fund will support the proposed interventions. The fund will partner with existing programs and use already established networks.
The project’s objectives are ambitious: To build trust and understanding between patients, their families and their health providers; help patients find their voice and amplify it so they can access the right specialists and telehealth resources; and make sure that all patients have the health equipment they need such as inhalers, nebulizers and oxygen equipment, which can be a financial burden to patients without resources.
The COVID-19 pandemic has already changed countless aspects of our lives, most of which were unwelcome. Through this new initiative, we can introduce one change that is desperately needed. In the absence of a cure, the ability to treat everyone, regardless of who they are, would be a victory.