Inequalities in Healthcare Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Nature Communications (w. M Verhagen and A Tilstra)
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe reductions in non-COVID related healthcare use. This study investigates whether the reduction in administered care disproportionately affected marginalised population groups. Using detailed medical claims data from the Dutch universal health care system that covers all residents in The Netherlands, we predict expected healthcare use based on pre-pandemic trends and compare these expectations with observed healthcare use in 2020. Our findings reveal a substantial 10% decline in the number of treated patients in 2020 relative to prior years. Declines more pronounced for individuals below the poverty line, females, the elderly, and foreign-born individuals. These inequalities stem predominantly from declines in middle and low urgency procedures, and indicate that the pandemic has not only had an unequal toll in terms of the direct health burden of the pandemic, but has also had a differential impact on the use of non-COVID healthcare.