Health Disparities and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in the USA

Excerpt

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has quickly demonstrated the many shortcomings of the US healthcare system. Based on evidence from the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009, it will likely exacerbate many of the disparities in healthcare access and outcomes that exist in the USA. Unlike every other developed country in the world, a large number of people in the USA still lack health insurance (27.5 million people as of 2018), a disproportionate number of whom are people of lower socioeconomic status and racial and ethnic minorities. Additionally, over half of non-elderly adults in the USA receive employer-sponsored health insurance, making them vulnerable to a loss of healthcare access in the event of losing their employment. Minority and lower socioeconomic status populations also experience a high burden of chronic cardiovascular and pulmonary disease that will place them at a higher risk of complications from infection. Urgent actions, such as expansion of health insurance coverage, need to be taken to lessen the burden of this pandemic and the accompanying economic consequences on vulnerable populations. …