Dr. Victoria Dooley is a family physician who practices in metro Detroit.
Dr. Dooley was on the Hear the Bern podcast with Briahna Gray recently. It’s really worth a listen because she talked about how M4A would impact her practice, with its diverse patients. She spoke about how her office struggles with insurance companies on behalf of patients, and how insurers have found innovative ways to waste her time when she prescribed life-saving but expensive medications. She talked about how her black female patients struggle with multiple barriers to healthcare.
Here’s a segment of the transcript where Dr. Dooley discusses the problem of lack of insurance or under-insurance among her patients, and how patients ration prescriptions and insulin because they can’t afford it.
Briahna Joy Gray: So, I am so grateful to be joined today by Dr. Victoria Dooley, who is one of our most compelling surrogates, who has been on the campaign trail working like we're paying her [laughs], even though we're not. [laughs]. And who I brought on today to talk about Medicare for All. And in particular, as a practicing physician, what, what your perspective is on why it's so important and why there's so many gains to be had there for cost saving. So, first of all can you tell us a little bit about your background and your practice?
Dr. Victoria Dooley: Yes. I'm a family medicine physician. I completed my med school training in Detroit. And then I completed my residency training in Flint. And now I practice in the suburbs of Detroit. I have a diverse practice, but because evidence has shown that people of color usually have better outcomes when they have a doctor of color-... people from all over the area seek out me as a Black physician but I do have a very diverse practice of all ages from youth through seniors.
Briahna Joy Gray: So, we hear a lot about health gaps, the maternal mortality gap and other kinds of health gaps between Black Americans and White Americans. What are some of the reasons? What are those, some of the primary factors that go into that?
Dr. Victoria Dooley: Being uninsured is a major issue. Briahna, when you look at every effort we've made in this country to insure more people, whether it be Medicaid expansion or Medicare or the Affordable Care Act, every single time there is still a disproportionate amount of poor people of all colors, Black and Brown people, who are still left uninsured. Even after the Affordable Care Act African Americans are still twice as likely to be uninsured as White Americans. And so no, if you don't have the means to get you a doctor, to get prevention... if you don't have the means to get you a doctor to get prescriptions, you're going to get sicker and you're going to die earlier.
Briahna Joy Gray: Is this something that you've observed in your practice 'cause I, I read stories and, yeah, please tell us a little.
Dr. Victoria Dooley: Absolutely. All the time, Briahna. That's why I'm so passionate about ending health disparity because, again, my practice is very diverse, but I have a lot of Black females in my practice. And all patients of all backgrounds and all incomes are complaining about these rising health care costs. So, we have more insurance in this country with the Affordable Care Act, but we have done nothing to address the underinsurance issue.
Or these rising deductibles and copays and et cetera. So, patients of all backgrounds complain about rising health care costs. But my Black women are my most likely to tell me that they are going out of medication and that they are delaying and refusing services due to cost. And so, part of that is because it's a bigger issue for people of color. And another part of it might be they're more comfortable telling me that... because I am a Black woman myself. It's embarrassing to tell your doctor that you can't afford your prescription.
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Dr. Victoria Dooley: And, and it's really a ridiculous subject to talk about because we don't talk about the reasons why patients are quote/unquote non-compliant with taking their medications.
I had a young Black male come to me, and he had diabetes for some time. He had been off his insulin for three years, Briahna. Three years.
Briahna Joy Gray: Oh, wow.
Dr. Victoria Dooley: And I said, you know, "How come it's been so long that you've been off your insulin?" And he said, "Dr. Dooley, I was making $9 an hour, and I had health insurance, but it had a $3,000 deductible, and my insulin was costing about $250 a month. I was not taking my insulin because I could not afford it." So, what good is health insurance if you are making minimum wages. $250 a month, that's a car loan. How could anybody afford that?
So, it is a huge issue for African Americans, meaning health disparities. And so yeah, some people say to me, "Oh, well Medicare for All is not going to eliminate racism," right? — berniesanders.com/...