ur health is one of the most precious assets we have. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly put this into perspective. For many people, this marks a new health reality for them. Some people are facing new challenges because they’ve lost their job or are indefinitely homebound. Others are now living even further below the poverty line than they were before.
In 2017, the World Health Organization predicted that if the world continued on the same trajectory, less than half of the world’s population will have access to basic and essential healthcare services by 2030. Given the state of the world, unless we take significant and immediate action today, this problem is going to get worse again before it gets better.
In the wake of COVID-19, it’s become apparent that access will be a key solution. How can we better enable access to healthcare solutions to vulnerable populations? How can we make it simpler for them to take care of themselves? How can we make care more affordable? How can we free up time for healthcare providers to focus on critical patients? Here are three focus areas for us to help shift the health access paradigm.
Self-care Plays a Critical Role in the Healthcare Continuum
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the term healthcare? Maybe you think about going to the doctor to treat an illness or to get a check-up. Perhaps you think about our healthcare systems and insurance or managed care. Or the role prescription drugs and vaccines play in treating and preventing illness. But, do you think about what you do at-home to take care of yourself as a part of healthcare?
Self-care, defined by the World Health Organization as “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider” needs to play a stronger role in the healthcare continuum. During the pandemic, self-care has become the first and last line of treatment for many people. Having the right self-care solutions at home has become critically important for people to stay healthy and shelter at home. It will likely take time before treatments and vaccines are in place. Self-care can offer a practical approach to help mitigate overburdened healthcare systems today.
Even before the crisis, we’ve known for years that the accessibility of preventative care and basic health literacy can reduce the need for many people to visit a healthcare provider, enabling physicians to focus on more severe or urgent cases. By caring for everyday health, people can improve their health and well-being today, as well as prevent and decrease the likelihood of disease in the future. In a study of 23,000 German adults, having healthy every day behaviors accounted for a 78% lower risk of chronic disease (diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke, and cancer). Self-care also enables people to be more productive members of society. The Center for Workforce Health and Performance in the U.S. estimates that chronic conditions, such as allergies, heartburn and headaches—all of which can be easily treated at home, for most people—account for $165 billion in lost productivity costs.
As we think about life post-COVID-19, accessibility to self-care for underserved communities needs to take center stage. We need to start working on ways to create and adapt health literacy programs so they fit within existing community norms. For instance, in Guatemala, midwives are relied upon for advice and treatment. We also need to ensure the same science and rigor goes into creating preventative measures as other elements of healthcare. Once access is achieved, the solutions need to work to keep people healthier and leveraging health services differently.
Create Practical Policies that Expand Access
COVID-19 has placed a spotlight on persisting healthcare inequalities throughout the world. The pandemic has magnified problems in underserved communities in both developed and developing nations. We need to be both visionary and pragmatic in order to create change quickly and in a sustained way.
But in order to do this effectively, lawmakers need to act as an enabler. Lawmakers need to enact policies that facilitate change to be made quickly and effectively. For instance, the United States recently enacted monograph reform aimed to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of their regulatory structure to protect the public health. It’s too early to share success stories here, but hopefully we’ll see this policy expedite help to the millions of underserved Americans who are now struggling to afford healthcare because they’ve been impacted by the economic impact of COVID-19.
Policies should look at new approaches to behavior change when they are determining future investments in health promotion, prevention, and self-care initiatives. Effective educational campaigns centered on promoting the benefits of self-care are few and far between; nor are there many noteworthy programs that encourage people to take greater control of their own and their family’s health. To address this unmet need, authorities should consider instituting health promotion programs that begin at an early age, continuing through school and into the workforce. Governments don’t need to do these programs alone and should consider utilizing multi-stakeholder-initiatives and public-private partnerships.
We need to see more countries making an effort to create policies that will make healthcare accessible to all.
Ensure Nutrition is a Part of Everyday Health
According to the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), close to 2 billion people survive on diets that lack the vital vitamins and nutrients needed to grow properly, live healthy lives, and raise a healthy family. We shouldn’t be talking about food and health separately. It’s not enough to talk about food security and how to provide people with food if it isn’t going to keep them healthy.
What’s also concerning is nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45% of child deaths under age 5. Among undernourished children who survive, more than one quarter suffer from stunted growth, which can impair neurological development and learning. Micronutrient supplementation is a proven strategy to help fill in the gaps in their diet. In fact, providing micronutrient supplements to children and mothers before, during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, are two of the nutrition interventions that have been shown to significantly improve child health and survival.
We need to be doing more to look at micronutrient solutions that can help alleviate malnutrition and help break the cycle of the poverty it perpetuates.
Building Back Better
Reimagining health access in for a post-pandemic world will play a pivotal role in how we achieve “health for all” by 2030. We can’t think about just building back what’s eroded due to the virus, but figuring out pragmatic solutions to build back better for this new world in which we live.
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How Healthcare Access Needs to Change Post-Pandemic
May 21, 2020
O
ur health is one of the most precious assets we have. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly put this into perspective. For many people, this marks a new health reality for them. Some people are facing new challenges because they’ve lost their job or are indefinitely homebound. Others are now living even further below the poverty line than they were before.
In 2017, the World Health Organization predicted that if the world continued on the same trajectory, less than half of the world’s population will have access to basic and essential healthcare services by 2030. Given the state of the world, unless we take significant and immediate action today, this problem is going to get worse again before it gets better.
In the wake of COVID-19, it’s become apparent that access will be a key solution. How can we better enable access to healthcare solutions to vulnerable populations? How can we make it simpler for them to take care of themselves? How can we make care more affordable? How can we free up time for healthcare providers to focus on critical patients? Here are three focus areas for us to help shift the health access paradigm.
Self-care Plays a Critical Role in the Healthcare Continuum
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the term healthcare? Maybe you think about going to the doctor to treat an illness or to get a check-up. Perhaps you think about our healthcare systems and insurance or managed care. Or the role prescription drugs and vaccines play in treating and preventing illness. But, do you think about what you do at-home to take care of yourself as a part of healthcare?
Self-care, defined by the World Health Organization as “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider” needs to play a stronger role in the healthcare continuum. During the pandemic, self-care has become the first and last line of treatment for many people. Having the right self-care solutions at home has become critically important for people to stay healthy and shelter at home. It will likely take time before treatments and vaccines are in place. Self-care can offer a practical approach to help mitigate overburdened healthcare systems today.
Even before the crisis, we’ve known for years that the accessibility of preventative care and basic health literacy can reduce the need for many people to visit a healthcare provider, enabling physicians to focus on more severe or urgent cases. By caring for everyday health, people can improve their health and well-being today, as well as prevent and decrease the likelihood of disease in the future. In a study of 23,000 German adults, having healthy every day behaviors accounted for a 78% lower risk of chronic disease (diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke, and cancer). Self-care also enables people to be more productive members of society. The Center for Workforce Health and Performance in the U.S. estimates that chronic conditions, such as allergies, heartburn and headaches—all of which can be easily treated at home, for most people—account for $165 billion in lost productivity costs.
As we think about life post-COVID-19, accessibility to self-care for underserved communities needs to take center stage. We need to start working on ways to create and adapt health literacy programs so they fit within existing community norms. For instance, in Guatemala, midwives are relied upon for advice and treatment. We also need to ensure the same science and rigor goes into creating preventative measures as other elements of healthcare. Once access is achieved, the solutions need to work to keep people healthier and leveraging health services differently.
Create Practical Policies that Expand Access
COVID-19 has placed a spotlight on persisting healthcare inequalities throughout the world. The pandemic has magnified problems in underserved communities in both developed and developing nations. We need to be both visionary and pragmatic in order to create change quickly and in a sustained way.
But in order to do this effectively, lawmakers need to act as an enabler. Lawmakers need to enact policies that facilitate change to be made quickly and effectively. For instance, the United States recently enacted monograph reform aimed to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of their regulatory structure to protect the public health. It’s too early to share success stories here, but hopefully we’ll see this policy expedite help to the millions of underserved Americans who are now struggling to afford healthcare because they’ve been impacted by the economic impact of COVID-19.
Policies should look at new approaches to behavior change when they are determining future investments in health promotion, prevention, and self-care initiatives. Effective educational campaigns centered on promoting the benefits of self-care are few and far between; nor are there many noteworthy programs that encourage people to take greater control of their own and their family’s health. To address this unmet need, authorities should consider instituting health promotion programs that begin at an early age, continuing through school and into the workforce. Governments don’t need to do these programs alone and should consider utilizing multi-stakeholder-initiatives and public-private partnerships.
We need to see more countries making an effort to create policies that will make healthcare accessible to all.
Ensure Nutrition is a Part of Everyday Health
According to the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), close to 2 billion people survive on diets that lack the vital vitamins and nutrients needed to grow properly, live healthy lives, and raise a healthy family. We shouldn’t be talking about food and health separately. It’s not enough to talk about food security and how to provide people with food if it isn’t going to keep them healthy.
What’s also concerning is nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45% of child deaths under age 5. Among undernourished children who survive, more than one quarter suffer from stunted growth, which can impair neurological development and learning. Micronutrient supplementation is a proven strategy to help fill in the gaps in their diet. In fact, providing micronutrient supplements to children and mothers before, during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, are two of the nutrition interventions that have been shown to significantly improve child health and survival.
We need to be doing more to look at micronutrient solutions that can help alleviate malnutrition and help break the cycle of the poverty it perpetuates.
Building Back Better
Reimagining health access in for a post-pandemic world will play a pivotal role in how we achieve “health for all” by 2030. We can’t think about just building back what’s eroded due to the virus, but figuring out pragmatic solutions to build back better for this new world in which we live.
