Karissa Hammer, MD
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility Fellow
Department of OBGYN, MGH
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| Karissa Hammer, MD |
The COE public health policy course lifted the veil covering
our complex medical system. As a physician, my training thus far has focused on
disease processes and providing excellent evidence based care. However, I never
completely understood why our country still struggled to give healthcare
coverage and access to care to everyone.
I am still frustrated when I
frequently find myself spending excessive time on the phone to get insurance
companies to cover medications for my patients, have patients not comply with
medical recommendations for cost purposes, or patients come to me late into a
disease process since they did not have access to a primary care provider for
disease screening.
This course allowed me to understand how our health system
became so fractured and what efforts are being made to attempt improving it. I
learned how I could play a role in improving access to care. The mystery of how
to “fix” our broken healthcare system still exists, but it is clearer to me now
what the breaks are and I feel empowered to be involved in changing it.
