As a Thornton city councilor, I have seen the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand. Through the course of two years, more than 35,000 members of my community tested positive for COVID and 287 irreplaceable lives were lost. Now more than ever, Americans need access to quality, affordable health care, and the pandemic has not only proven this to be true, but also exposed many flaws in our health-care system. Even before the pandemic, Americans faced significant barriers to accessing quality health care. Rising out-of-pocket costs, prior authorization requirements for medical services that jeopardize care, and inequalities that disproportionately impact people of color are prominent in the American health-care system. These issues must be addressed.

Prior authorization — when physicians must receive approval from insurers for necessary procedures or medications — is a common practice in the U.S. health-care system. However, this practice is just as harmful as it is widespread. In fact, an American Medical Association (AMA) survey of 1,000 physicians found that 9-in-10 reported prior authorizations delayed access to necessary care and more than 25% said the delays had led to a dangerous event. Because prior authorization leads to major delays in care, many Americans are forced to pay out-of-pocket as these harmful delays threaten their health and safety.

Before the pandemic, studies showed that Americans were more concerned about rising health-care costs than with expenses related to retirement, housing, childcare and higher education. After COVID-19 began rapidly spreading across the world, more than half of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance still chose to delay treatment for themselves or a family member because of cost. Furthermore, 42% of Americans have reported that they or someone in their household has lost a job or taken a pay cut during the pandemic. With the sheer number of Americans who have lost their only source of income and access to quality health care, many have to face a harrowing decision: pay for health care out-of-pocket, or delay or completely deny treatment due to financial concerns. Additionally, many insurers and hospitals — like United Healthcare — use predatory practices to substitute the expense of unpaid medical bills, resulting in medical bills coming in as the number one reason why Americans declare bankruptcy annually. Now more than ever, it is crucial for our policymakers to control rising out-of-pocket health-care costs because they endanger the safety and lives of millions of hard-working American families.

Though all these issues are relevant and prominent among all Americans, the pandemic has disproportionately amplified these disparities within communities of color. A 2022 study found that a smaller percentage of Black and Latino people are covered by employer-sponsored health care and that they are 1.5 to 2.5 times more likely to be uninsured than White people. From lower vaccination rates in the south to the all-too-common belief that Black patients feel less pain than White patients, minority communities have suffered in untold ways at the hands of the American health-care system. Furthermore, they are still suffering at the hands of the system: Black and Hispanic women are nearly three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. It is up to politicians to reform discriminatory and racist practices within our health-care system; these deadly biases and misinformation have resulted in millions of untimely and avoidable deaths within minority communities. Our policymakers must stand up and fight for every American.

Consumers have shown they are concerned about their access to health care as well as the constantly rising costs, and as Americans, we all deserve full access to these services regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender or religious affiliation. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly eased up, there is no denying that the legacy it left in exposing the cracks in the American health-care system, as well as our ability to respond to public-health crises, is troubling. Our federal policy makers need to make reforms so Americans can feel confident in the system once more.

Julia Marvin has served on the Thornton City Council since 2019. A CU-Boulder graduate, she currently works in communications and has been a grassroots activist and community advocate since her college years.