KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new Harvard study with the Movement Advancement Project shows that COVID-19 has negatively impacted LGBTQ households more than non-LGBTQ households, especially if they are Black or Latinx.
"There tend to be worse outcomes in general," said Dr. Ryan Cox, behavior health director at the LGBTQ Specialty Clinic at Truman Medical Center. "Part of that is a lack of primary care. People often in this community, particularly the transgender community, don't already have established relationships with medical providers."
Cox said the LGBTQ community also historically has not had support from family or the outside community that cisgender people tend to have.
Inoru Wade with the Kansas City Center for Inclusion said the study highlights issues that have existed for a long time, particularly in healthcare.
"It's the psychology of, 'If my family doesn't accept me or listen to me or fight for me, why would I believe a total stranger is going to?'" Wade said.
The study shows that a quarter of LGBTQ households couldn't get needed prescriptions or delayed doing so, compared to 8% of non-LGBTQ people. More than one in eight LGBTQ households lost health coverage since the pandemic started, which is more than twice the rate of non-LGBTQ households.
Health care workers at Truman Medical Center said they are seeing these study results reflected in the Kansas City community.
"They would rather skip their medical appointments rather than come out and expose themselves to COVID, so yeah, it is definitely having an impact," said Kim Tilson, nurse care manager at the LGBTQ Specialty Clinic. "So if you can't come in for doctor's appointments, if we can't follow up, it's hard to make sure we can refill your medications and still say safe."
Truman is working to make it easier by providing video visits and helping patients find health insurance.
The study says 64% of LGBTQ households have lost a job due to the pandemic, compared to less than half of non-LGBTQ households. For Black people, that number is 95%, and for those who are Latinx, that number is 70%.
Cox said financial hardships and stress tie directly to your emotional and mental health.
Truman's LGBTQ specialty clinics have mental health, endocrinologists, and primary care built in, so patients can see everyone at once without worry.
Tilson said in the transgender community hormone therapy is often the focus, but stresses that primary care is just as important.
Tilson said she loves that their clinics, while they primarily treat LGBTQ folks, take patients' family members, too.
"Family members are just as an important part of physical and mental health as the individual patients," Tilson said.
But, not everyone in the region has access to a place like Truman. The study also said LGBTQ people in the Midwest and the South reported being hit especially hard during the pandemic.
"It's going to take a massive amount of effort from city, county, state and even the federal level to address the inequities inside the health care industry as it relates to LGBTQ-plus people," Wade said.
Wade said the clinics and doctors who are inclusive need more support to make these stats go down.
"They run on government dollars, they run on grants," Wade said. "And if your starting point is, 'Well, these people don't really exist,' then we're not getting the same level of funding either which means we're just getting the short end of the stick on all angles."
Tilson and Cox stress to people not to be scared to come into the hospital for your doctor's appointments; it's the safest place to be because they follow stringent PPE guidelines.
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