Ironically, COVID-19 Has Significantly Improved American Healthcare

Gladys Templeberk is 74 years old and received her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last week. Gladys lives with her son and wife in a small apartment in Lithonia, Georgia, where she has lived most of her life. She never had health insurance simply because she couldn't afford it. When she was told that she could get the COVID-19 vaccine for free, she was initially skeptical.

COVID shots for anyone, anytime. As simple as that.

“For years I thought there was no such thing as 'free' in the United States. You always have to pay, if not now, then later, and in a big way, "she chuckled," but this vaccination program surprised me. I really didn't have to pay for it, unconditional. And they even got it right here in my neighborhood without a lot of paperwork and signatures. Just like that. I would even say it's a miracle! "

Millions of Americans can easily identify with Gladys because they find themselves in exactly the same situation. However, something has changed in the past year and, ironically, we owe that to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical services are becoming more accessible to everyone, regardless of how much money they have in their bank account.

The social cure

It took society a while to understand that protecting yourself from disease must mean protecting everyone from it. If only the rich have access to diagnosis, treatment, and vaccination, the disease will not simply go away. While collaboration between rich and poor nations is far from satisfactory on a global scale, the Biden administration in the US has already allocated billions of dollars to immunity equality.

The result is an astonishing 246 million vaccine doses already administered, with almost 40% of the population already fully vaccinated - a number that only a few nations can boast today. If you're covered, your health insurance will pay for it, and if you aren't, the government will take care of the check.

But that's only part of the story. Local and federal authorities are doing everything they can to motivate people to shoot. Tens of thousands of vaccination centers have opened across the country to make it as accessible as possible, and the Ministry of Health has put in place an 'act now, ask later' approach where anyone can get the vaccination and manage the money without citizens' involvement. "We must continue to ensure that vaccination coverage is consistent across the country," commented Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, the matter.

A man receiving his Pfizer admission in suburban Los Angeles.

Technology to the rescue

Another irreversible process worth mentioning is the growing importance of technology in health and treatment. The COVID-19 has certainly served as a catalyst in this vein, especially due to social distancing and transportation restrictions. Therefore, innovators around the world are looking for ways to fight the virus quickly, efficiently, and precisely.

A prominent example that comes to mind is the "breath analyzer" developed by Scentech Medical, which is designed to detect the virus immediately and has recently entered the testing phase. The Israel-based company specializes in breath tests for diagnosing all types of diseases. "The more biomarkers (substances that indicate the presence of a disease) we can detect, the more accurate our test will be," said Yaniv Hevron, CEO of Scentech Medical, adding, "We aim for 90% accuracy for asymptomatic" to people. "

It is interesting to see the influx of well-known investors with a more traditional background in the MedTech sector. For example, the well-known US investment and banking company Goldman Sachs has significantly increased its investment volume in the health sector and opened up new areas such as Pakistan worldwide. “It's an exciting and important sector to cover,” commented Sonia Gupta, Managing Director Healthcare Investment Banking at GS. "Our customers spend every day working hard to meet unmet medical needs in today's healthcare environment."

On a personal level, Canadian serial entrepreneur Alex Shnaider has also been working in these fields lately. One of his more notable investments in recent years has been Glutality, an American telemedicine company focused on remote patient care and monitoring solutions. "This is actually not my first step into the medtech industry, but I can safely say that the need to find solutions to the problems raised by COVID-19 has brought a lot of newcomers to this field," he told us.

Back to everyday life

The question that remains is whether these changes that we are experiencing, which have ultimately improved the lives of the weaker classes of society, will remain accessible and affordable to all, even if the disease is just a memory. Technology and medicine both come at a price, and for now, governments are shouldering the burden. Nothing is certain given American health history, but it appears that the Biden government is interested in increasing the number of services available to all Americans, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

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