The 2020 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey finds that serious income-related inequality and lack of access to primary care could threaten pandemic recovery in the United States.

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the globe, the United States faces renewed scrutiny for the stark disparities in health and economic impacts experienced by people with lower incomes and by Black and Latino communities. In other countries, the crisis has highlighted the need for greater resiliency of national health systems to ensure access to care.

To compare the health experiences of adults with lower income during the pandemic and the effect of income-related disparities, the Commonwealth Fund surveyed adults across 11 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. The results of the survey, conducted during the early part of the pandemic between February and May 2020, were published in the December 2020 issue of Health Affairs.