Clinicians unite for health care reform

One of the factors that contributes to burnout in medicine is the inefficient and cumbersome nature of the systems in which we practice. This is especially true for compassionate, trauma-informed clinicians who must watch their patients suffer in a system that clearly has historical and current harms. By 2008, when I started my nonprofit, disparities had already cost this country millions of dollars and countless lives. We now have more precise data on these losses and the enormous cost to our health system. Not only would universal health care help solve this problem of health disparities, but by eliminating the constant need to accredit, negotiate and pay for the plethora of different insurance plans and their requirements, it would also mobilize thousands of administrative staff to other professions. , perhaps real medicine where we know there is a detrimental shortage.

In 2015, I wrote a letter to the CDC asking them to recognize racism as a public health crisis and received a response at first superficial, bordering on disdain, then empathy, then ‘indignation. As municipalities and organizations across the United States acknowledge, former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky recognized it as a “serious public health problem” due to the disproportionately severe toll in communities of color. The simple fact that she underestimated this crisis and only when she left office is significant, and some would say it is an example of institutional racism, and we have heard nothing from this from his replacement. For those most at risk, most people of color know that these systems work as intended, to exclude them. Whether because of this racism, well-paid lobbyists, fear of long wait times (already a problem), or poor quality of services, every president who has attempted to create a universal health care system has been defeated. As clinicians, we are in a unique position to strategize and add this to the fight, particularly post-pandemic when our work is recognized.

If we clinicians come together as UK clinicians have done, we can demand more responsive and agile systems that serve practitioners and patients instead of insurance companies and their executives, who strategize to refuse services, medications and healing interventions. Burnout is huge because bureaucracy prevents us from doing the one thing that combats it: helping patients. I recently accepted a position at a county clinic to directly serve patients who need me most as a clinician of color, and it took three months for four different staff members to credential me, even though I have worked at the same clinic for almost 16 years and previously worked at the county medical center. Meanwhile, patients at the clinic have to be booked out for months due to staff shortages. It also contributes greatly to health disparities, estimated at $451 billion annually, which would largely cover this cost and contribute to health justice. There is still much to discuss, think about and collaborate to solve the problem.

Leslie Gregory is a medical assistant.