Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Covid-19 allowed for an experiment in US healthcare: what if doctor’s visits and hospitalizations didn’t cost people money?
In response to the pandemic, major health insurers volunteered to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for their paying customers and the government introduced programs to make care more affordable. But a year after coronavirus was first identified in the US, those assurances haven’t played out as planned.
A program to help the country’s 28.9 million uninsured has been riddled with problems, such as patients not knowing which healthcare providers are actually participating in the scheme. Undocumented immigrants have largely been excluded from aid. The complexities of long Covid, when people experience symptoms for months, have challenged patients and providers. And health insurers still control what gets covered and for how long.
To better understand these disparities, the Guardian spoke to six people about the financial cost of Covid-19.
www.theguardian.com
In response to the pandemic, major health insurers volunteered to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for their paying customers and the government introduced programs to make care more affordable. But a year after coronavirus was first identified in the US, those assurances haven’t played out as planned.
A program to help the country’s 28.9 million uninsured has been riddled with problems, such as patients not knowing which healthcare providers are actually participating in the scheme. Undocumented immigrants have largely been excluded from aid. The complexities of long Covid, when people experience symptoms for months, have challenged patients and providers. And health insurers still control what gets covered and for how long.
To better understand these disparities, the Guardian spoke to six people about the financial cost of Covid-19.
'I don't make enough': the financial cost of having Covid in the US
Major health insurers volunteered to cover testing and treatment, while the government introduced new programs – but those assurances haven’t played out
www.theguardian.com