Many people without health insurance in the United States are afraid to seek medical attention even if COVID-19 test results come back positive, a pediatrician from the state of Maryland, Margaret Flowers, said in an interview with the RT broadcaster
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2020) Many people without health insurance in the United States are afraid to seek medical attention even if COVID-19 test results come back positive, a pediatrician from the state of Maryland, Margaret Flowers, said in an interview with the RT broadcaster.
"The fact that in the United States people ... did not know if they were [COVID-19] positive, people who did not have health insurance or who had health insurance and did not have money to pay upfront for the care that is required with health insurance, did not seek health care and so they were in their homes infecting people, some of them dying and people are afraid to go to the hospital here because they know that it could be tens of thousands of Dollars, especially now, when we are facing record unemployment rates," Flowers, who has 17 years of experience in medicine, said.
According to the pediatrician, the coronavirus situation in the United States has revealed a number of significant deficiencies in the country's health care system.
"We do not have a universal health care system in the United States, tens of millions of people have no health insurance at all, it also has exposed that we do not have a centralized health care system, our system is very piecemeal and bureaucratic and disorganized and because of that, there's been no leadership coming from a centralized institution. Our health care system is really based on profit not based on the health of people," the doctor said.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in the country, around 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment claims, according to the US Labor Department.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has surpassed 1.4 million and the number of related deaths has reached almost 86,000, data from the Johns Hopkins University shows.
Several US states are beginning to allow businesses to partially open up as a means to bolster the economy. The US has also earmarked about $3 trillion in COVID-19 relief packages.
