As I was getting acclimated to Hopkins and starting to be involved during my freshman year, I attended the Student Involvement Fair and came across Hopkins Community Connection (HCC). The sign read, “Are you an Advocate for Health Equity?”. Intrigued, I stopped by to chat with a student who explained that HCC connects underserved Baltimoreans with resources such as food stamps and energy assistance programs. Like many of my friends, I put myself on the mailing list and filled out an application. It was a decision I made on a whim that day, which has since reshaped my understanding of healthcare in Baltimore, and more broadly, in America.
After a rigorous application process, and a couple meetings with my First-Year Mentor who provided me with a clearer introduction to HCC, I was thrilled to receive my acceptance email. My training introduced me to the Social Determinants of Health, which included factors beyond medical care that shape health outcomes, like housing, food security and transportation. While I’d always known that financial and social circumstances can impact access to treatment, I learned more about the complex interplay of factors that prevented many Baltimoreans from getting the care they need and deserve.
Until I started working with patients, I never thought about how someone’s electric bill, cost of transportation or the amount of food on their table can stop them from getting treated for their chronic illnesses. How can a disabled elderly patient make it to an appointment when they are worrying about an electricity shutoff notice? How can a mother of two prioritize her own health when she’s worried about feeding her children? Before I was exposed to this reality by my clients, I hadn’t truly grasped how challenges like these make even basic health care feel so out of reach.
My experiences outside HCC reinforced the idea that care costs are often too high. As a member of Hopkins Emergency Response Organization (HERO), I was trained as an emergency medical technician last year and joined an emergency medical care organization. I witnessed firsthand how the cost of one-way transports could go as high as $400. I learned that many patients need pre- and post-operative appointments when receiving life saving treatments, which, added to the costs of medications, treatments and hospital stays, can amount to tens of thousands of dollars. When combined with the costs of expensive groceries, housing and utilities bills, the expenses can often cost a patient access to care.
Given these realities, I understand why many Baltimoreans feel frustrated — especially with institutions like Hopkins that have a history of contributing to the gentrification of the city. Too many of our patients have spent their entire lives constrained by circumstances that are beyond their control. Even applying for assistance programs requires internet and transportation access, which are not guaranteed for many residents of Baltimore.
As I’ve worked with clients, the importance of HCC’s role in the community has become much clearer to me — we do our best to fight for those facing barriers in health care access.HCC doesn’t work miracles, nor do we claim to. Our efforts rely heavily on our elected leaders creating and funding social programs. However, with ongoing threats to programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and eligibility criteria for these programs tightening, our jobs get significantly harder and our clients suffer.
My work with HCC strongly contrasts what others have warned me of as I first moved to Baltimore. When informing one of my high school teachers of my admission to Johns Hopkins, he remarked, “The one in Baltimore? Good luck.” This idea stems from a strongly racist history marked by redlining and segregation in Baltimore, which resulted in many of the barriers in access to care that exist today. These experiences have deepened my belief in the importance of the work that HCC does by ensuring that all Baltimoreans — regardless of the circumstances — are not denied care due to factors outside their control.
If there’s one lesson I can share with any Hopkins student, it’s that healthcare inequality isn’t just an abstract issue — it’s a daily reality for many of our neighbors. Even outside HCC, we all have a role to play in this fight.
Arnav Lakhia is a sophomore from Princeton, N.J. majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Computational Medicine.
