US: Economic crisis forces families to cut back on healthcare

[dcsmart]

One of the most important, and least talked about, consequences of the US financial crisis is that millions of individuals and families are being compelled to cut back on needed medical treatments. Because the US healthcare system is largely employer-based, working people who lose their jobs also lose access to decent medical care, facing an enormous double burden of lost income and worsening health.

Several studies show that Americans are already self-rationing their use of healthcare services. In November 2008, the Commonwealth Fund released a study of patients with seven chronic conditions—high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung problems, cancer and depression. The study found that more than half of the patients did not get care because it was too expensive. They either did not visit a doctor when they were ill, missed a test or treatment, or did not fill a prescription. This was most common among the uninsured, but even 43 percent of patients with insurance skipped needed care.

The same study found that in 2007, nearly two thirds of adults either had trouble paying their medical bills, were underinsured or uninsured, or went without care they needed. Between 2001 and 2007, the number of people who said high costs stopped them from getting needed care grew from 29 to 45 percent.

A recent poll by the Deloitte Center, a nonpartisan research group, found about 80 percent of Americans are afraid the global economic crisis may lead to their not being able to pay their medical bills. Among people who had postponed or skipped a medical procedure, 27 percent said it was because they could not afford to pay for the procedure.

According to a press release January 5 from the University of Michigan's Medical School and School of Public Health, Dr. A. Mark Fendrick estimated that one in nine people are cutting pills, taking them less often than prescribed or doing something the doctor did not recommend. Doctor visits are down 10 to 15 percent, and people are putting off important health screenings and vaccinations.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/medi-j26.shtml

[raccoon]

1. Rec'd. I started a thread about this in GD a few days ago. nt