Thousands of Connecticut residents are uninsured and many more communities say they are under-served during the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to health officials, resources are being concentrated to major hospitals which has left many with the question, “Can I even afford to get tested?”
Ajay Kumar, MD is the Chief Clinical Officer of Hartford Healthcare said, “These are the times when a system like ours is not thinking about the insurance... these are the times when we are trying to figure out how do we become available for all of the community at this time.”
Hartford Healthcare says insurance should not be a major concern right now for the uninsured.
According to Av Harris with the state’s Department of Public Health, currently, there is no charge for COVID-19 testing which is why the DPH says a person needs to make sure they qualify before visiting a doctor.
“The message from physicians is calling us first, don’t just show up because there is a real risk of healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, nurse’s aides getting sick and so they want to talk to you first on the phone, they can even do a video conference with you,” said Av Harris.
According to officials, through federally qualified health centers everyone can be seen, no matter the demographic.
Hartford Healthcare said Friday, the uninsured are not the only group of people COVID-19 will affect.
Sarah Louis, the Vice-President of Health Equity at Hartford Healthcare said, “We see this along racial and ethnic lines as well, unfortunately, Black and Hispanic members of our society are more likely to suffer and carry these different co-morbidities over their life span.”
Under-lying conditions are common in low income, and minority communities; having additional health conditions may affect the infection rate of COVID-19 increasing the at-risk population.
We expect that most people who suffer from COVID-19 will be in the older age ranges, but if you have one of these underlying conditions and you are younger and you’re one of these particular groups that I mentioned it doesn’t matter how old you are you can suffer just as much as somebody who is sort of at the older range which is more likely to get infected and die from this disease,” said Louis.
Health officials say for those who fall in any of the categories of at-risk groups, make sure you are prepared.
Louis said, “Please do an assessment of all the medications that you may need or might need to have on hand don’t run out, this is not the time to run out of your emergency inhaler if you have asthma, for instance, call your doctor and make sure you can get that on-hand.”