Health Care Access during COVID
Even though healthcare has been a main focus during the pandemic, individuals with non-COVID-19 related health needs have faced logistical and economic challenges accessing needed care.
Some people have not been able to get the critical appointments they need. For example, Marta and Francis are two mothers who gave birth four and seven months ago, respectively. While their infant children have received their vaccines, the mothers have not been able to get medical help for their evolving medical conditions. Francis started having severe bleeding and other post-delivery symptoms around the time the stay-at-home went into effect. She has tried calling her doctor repeatedly, but she still hasn’t been seen by the doctor, and she’s increasingly worried about her health condition. Marta delivered her youngest child via C-section and then had an additional non-related emergency surgery in late February, as the pandemic intensified. Since being released from the hospital after her second surgery, she has not been able to have any post-op appointments or get the follow-up CAT scan that she needs. She’s been recuperating on her own at home and medicating with over the counter pain medicine. She wonders if she’s healing correctly and when she will be able to make an appointment to get checked out.
Others cannot afford preventative care. Because she is undocumented, Mayte uses MassHealth Limited for health insurance, which only covers emergencies. Mayte’s family has been struggling to make ends meet after the store she worked at closed and after her partner got his work hours reduced. Mayte says that if she needed to go to the doctor, she just wouldn’t go because she can’t afford it, especially now with a reduced income and when she is also still in debt for treatment last year for an injury. Although Mayte is thankful she rarely gets sick, she has never had a routine physical exam. Recently her doctor asked her to make an appointment for a visit, but Mayte says she is not going to go until she has insurance that will cover the cost.
There is also the risk associated with visiting a clinic during the pandemic. Betty is pleased with her access to telemedicine, but her challenge is continuously going to the health clinic to pick up her son’s asthma medicines. Although she has been given more medicine than usual at each visit so that she doesn’t have to make the trip as often, Betty still fears getting infected with Coronavirus at the health clinic and bringing the virus home. She notes that not everyone wears a mask at the clinic, and she wishes there was another way for her to get her son’s prescription without being so exposed. Another respondent is a senior who has five doctor’s appointments coming up this month and has been staying home for fear of getting the Coronavirus. She worries about how she will get to her upcoming appointments, saying, “the hospital sends me an Uber, ‘cause if they don’t send me one I’m not going.”
Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.