In this project, conducted by undergraduate students in anthropology and supervised by Dr. Marieke S. van Eijk, we want to learn more about the work that patients, family, non-profit organizations, and faith-based communities do to mitigate uncovered medical expenses. Through interviews, surveys, and policy analyses, we show the health and wealth disparities generated, in ways new and old, when individual patients carry the burden to fund healthcare in a fragmented, for-profit health system deeply stratified by ideologies of race, gender, citizenship, and ablism. We also examine the work that non-profits, activists, and faith-based communities do to negotiate the price of healthcare on a patient's behalf to eliminate personal debt.
To communicate our findings to a broad public, we created a podcast and will post on social media platforms. This information can help health care providers, patients, and policy makers in creating health policies that lessen people’s financial burdens by supporting patients’ skill sets and help fill gaps in knowledge.