Americans forgo health care because of cost
November 14, 2008 by Personal Liberty News Desk
Healthcare costs in America just seem to keep rising – and patients could be paying the price.
A majority of chronically ill U.S. patients do not receive recommended care, fill prescriptions or see a doctor when sick due to costs – more than any of the other countries studied in a new survey.
The study, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, found that over half of Americans went without care because of the cost.
Researchers surveyed chronically ill adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States and found that Americans were at a particularly high risk of going without care because of the costs associated with being sick.
Although the study notes that the U.S. did well in categories such as patient-centered care, one-third of Americans, more than any other nation in the survey, reported poorly coordinated care such as being given the wrong medication or receiving incorrect test results.
The findings were in line with a 2005 study from the Centers for Disease Control which found that 49 percent of uninsured adults with a chronic illness skipped care.
The 2005 CDC study also found that while the uninsured typically had less contact with health care providers, they still had large out of pocket expenses with 21 percent saying they had spent $2,000 or more over the previous year.
The root problem here is the cost of healthcare in the U.S. The insurance companies are the biggest part of the problem. Insurance companies only pay doctors a tiny faction of what is billed, forcing doctors and hospitals to continuously jack their charges higher and higher. So insurance companies pay them only a tiny fraction of what is billed, and the cycle continues.
The poor souls that don’t have any insurance don’t get the same breaks. If you have to pay for your own healthcare expenses, you have to pay the full billed rate. So where is the fairness in that?
If healthcare providers and insurance companies didn’t play this game… healthcare costs would be only a fraction of what they are today, which would alleviate most of the problem for the uninsured. –Bob.
I bet if you gave everyone $5000 to purchase health care package, instead most would spend it on lottery tickets. Cost is one thing and common sense in America is another.
Dear Bob,
I am very troubled with our health care system. We have all the technologies in the world, and yet only a privileged few get access to them. Why can we have the same health system as the British people have.?
A lot of the problem stems from the cost of malpractice insurance and claims filed that may or may not have merit. Americans are probably allowed a lot more litigation rights than other countries.