Listening to Low-Income Patients and Their Physicians

High-quality primary care is critically important for health. Unfortunately, for low-income people, it often falls short of meeting needs. Over the past year and a half, the Commonwealth Fund held focus groups with more than 100 low-income patients and 30 primary care physicians (PCPs) serving them. Patients and their doctors identified several barriers that hinder access and ability to provide high-quality primary health care and discussed potential solutions.

On this episode of The Dose, Shanoor Seervai and Corinne Lewis discuss what they learned about the time constraints and financial barriers that can make it an ordeal for people living in poverty to seek even the most routine health care.

The Commonwealth Fund’s Shanoor Seervai tells the stories of primary care doctors who care for low-income people — about the pride and joy they derive from their work, despite the obstacles they face in meeting their patients’ needs. 

This post is the third in a “Listening to Low-Income Patients” series that draws on qualitative research to describe, in patients’ own words, different issues that impact their health such as quality of health care, community, and mental health and addiction. Detailed follow-up interviews were conducted with patients.

Communities can have far-reaching effects on people’s health. Commonwealth Fund-supported researchers recently found that in neighborhoods where people do not feel safe, they feel stressed, anxious, and depressed. Feeling unsafe prevents people from walking around or doing other outdoor exercise, which has potential negative health consequences, according to this research.