My initial thoughts for this blog entry was how COVID-19 was negatively affecting the healthcare system in ways such as the lack of open providers for those either with or without insurance. Through my research on this topic I actually found the opposite to be true, that the medical facilities are the ones struggling through COVID-19 and not for the reason I thought. I thought that the facilities would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases; while some facilities have been overwhelmed to know here has also been facilities that are having to lay off workers. According to healthcaremanagment.org medical facilities are typically immune to recessions, but this recession caused by COVID-19 is different.
It seems that people are not seeking medical care unless it is absolutely necessary. Doctor’s offices are trying to keep people out of their waiting area when possible because of the potential virus spread. This means that people are not seeking the preventative care they may need. This also includes people not seeking the necessary imaging, such as x-rays, MRIs, CAT, and other scans that can be seen as preventive. Another major lack of visit is in the realm of elective surgeries. Many primary care physicians are seeing fewer patients for follow up for medication management. This can cause major issues with the patients if they are on medication that requires frequent testing because of the adverse side effects of the medications.
Elective surgeries are the largest percentage of medical procedures that have been postponed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elective surgeries are also the biggest moneymaker for any hospital. This is partially why so many healthcare facilities are being affected by the economic recession also. Elective surgeries are any surgery that can be scheduled for a later date. Part of the reason for postponing the elective surgeries is to have hospital beds and supplies for the likelihood that the hospital will have many COVID-19 cases. There are several different suggestions to start opening up the hospitals back up for elective surgeries after the hospitals are struggling and laying off workers. The major factors of hospitals opening up elective surgeries again has to do with what phase the state is in, along with how many hospital and ICU beds are currently available.
Besides the hospitals and medical facilities struggling to stay afloat, many individuals are struggling with losing their health insurance. Most of the individuals that have lost their health insurance have also lost or been furloughed from their job. According to CNBC.com approximately 12 million Americans have lost their health insurance since February. The website goes on to talk about the different options for those that find themselves currently uninsured (Nova, 2020). Those options are COBRA, marketplace insurance, or Medicaid or Medicare. COBRA is the most expensive of the options, I have seen it in my job range from $600 to over $900 a month. That cost at a time like this in the pandemic when you are without any income is just not realistic. The next option is the marketplace option for buying private insurance. The marketplace really depends on how much the individual was making previously and how much they want to be covered. This can still be an extensive cost when someone in unemployed or underemployed. The last option is signing up for Medicaid or Medicare.
Most of the insurance options are simply not feasible for someone that is unemployed or underemployed. When I say underemployed, I mean that someone is working any job they can find, but is likely overqualified for. I have several friends that were laid off from their salaried jobs that are now working retail or driving for Uber Eats. They took any job that they could find because they could not go without income for over a month. Many people do not know that since they are unemployed that they may qualify for Medicaid. From my working with Medicaid and signing up people recently for Medicaid, I know that it is still a process. The process has become more complicated because the website has been crashing quite often. Other issue with it is that because so many individuals did not previously qualify for it that they then have to complete either an in-person assessment or a phone call assessment, which are both severely backed up.
So, although, there are less people seeking medical care it is actually incredibly harmful for both the economy and the individuals. People are less likely to seek the preventative care that they need to keep themselves healthy. They are not seeking the preventive care because they either do not have insurance at this point or their doctor is not seeing patients unless it is severe. This is a large social work issue because people are going without the care they need. People are not seeing the behavioral healthcare they may need also. There has been a rise in depression with the isolation along with other mental health issues. We as social workers need to be working with our clients and everyone to make sure they are seeking the treatment that they need and helping them find new insurance if they need.
References
Cohut, M. (2020, May 15). The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary healthcare worldwide. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-primary-healthcare-around-the-world
COVID-19 - Elective Surgical Procedure Guidance. (2020, June 8). Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/diseases-a-z-list/coronavirus/health-care-providers/elective-procedures-guidance
COVID-19 and its Impact on the Healthcare Economy. (2020, April 21). Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://healthmanagement.org/c/cardio/news/covid-19-and-its-impact-on-the-healthcare-economy
Hospitals and Health Systems Face Unprecedented Financial Pressures Due to COVID-19: AHA. (2020, May). Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due
Nova, A. (2020, September 02). Millions of Americans have lost health insurance in this pandemic-driven recession. Here are their options. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/28/millions-of-americans-lost-health-insurance-amid-pandemic-here-are-options.html
It is so crazy to think about all the things I let slip my mind about how they could have been impacted by the pandemic. I did not think about clinics who offer services to non-insured persons, so thank you for raising my awareness. I had fractured my knee back in February, and unfortunately in about April my partners mother contracted COVID-19. I have a pre-existing health condition that makes the virus much more lethal, so as one could imagine I was a wreck. I was scared to enter doctor's offices, go to the grocery store, during the prime of the pandemic so even the thought of leaving to get a test was a nerve wrecking experience. I feel like I have the poor belief that hospitals are just full of sick people, so I wanted to be as far a s possible. I was also refraining of seeking out my rehabilitative care because I was attending PT during the pandemic. It is horrible to read the about the people who have lost health care as a result of being furloughed. It seems like just one thing after another with this pandemic. I believe I was so caught up in keeping myself safe that it didnt even cross my mind to think about individuals who only had insurance as a condition of their employment. Im not too familiar with this system, but what can we as social workers do to ensure that if another event like this were to occur and people were let go from their jobs that they would still be granted access to health care ?
ReplyDeleteI had totally forgotten that as people were losing their jobs, they were also losing their medical coverage and losing their health insurance. 12 million Americans losing their healthcare is absolutely ridiculous. How did we let this happen as a nation? I am just in utter shock that this pandemic truly made everyone's lives harder. I like the point that you made with people trying to get any possible job they could even if they were over qualified. It shows that people really did need a means of income, even if they had lost their jobs over a pandemic. I know of a couple of people who applied for unemployment, and it took them a while to get approved. However, even the unemployment amount was not enough to get them by with all their financial responsibilities. Thank you so much for your post!
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to think about how medical facilities as a whole are being impacted by COVID-19. I did not think about healthcare workers being laid off because there are so many people getting sick. However, there are so many departments in a hospital and so many types of doctors that individuals with different healthcare needs have to see. If they are not able to afford to see these doctors because they do not have health insurance or just cannot afford to because they lost their job due to the pandemic I can understand why healthcare facilities would be struggling or having to lay off employees. Also, I can understand people's fear of going into the doctor's office because they are fearful of being around sick people. This would also make them want to see the doctor less often, resulting in more healthcare facilities struggling financially. What an interesting perspective, thank you for sharing!
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