Posted on 01/17/2023 12:35:08 PM PST by grundle
Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A record number of Americans postponed getting medical treatment in 2022 due to prohibitive costs, with lower-income, younger adults and women the worst affected, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Overall, 38% of those surveyed reported that they or a family member had put off seeking medical care because of the high bills they would incur. That's the highest such response in the 22 years Gallup has been tracking the trend.
The 12-point increase from 2021 marked the steepest year-over-year increase so far, Gallup said in a news release. Those putting off treatment for "very" or "somewhat" serious conditions jumped sharply to 27%. That compared with 11% who had forgone treatment for conditions of less concern, with the gap between the two groups at its widest since 2019.
Gallup's findings came as a recent study showed that Americans are finding it harder and harder to afford medical care -- even if they have health insurance through their employer. Researchers from New York University found that over the past two decades the number of Americans with job-based health insurance who skimp on medical care has been on the rise.
The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association was inconclusive on the reasons behind the trend but pointed to rising healthcare costs and moves by insurers to push a larger portion of the payment for treatment onto consumers.
President Joe Biden has been pushing for lower healthcare costs since taking office in 2021. The president has touted his efforts to take the fight to pharmaceutical companies and insurers to reduce drug costs and health insurance premiums and put an end to surprise bills.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which seeks to lock in lower healthcare premiums for millions who are covered through the Affordable Care Act, was signed into law by Biden in August after overcoming unanimous opposition from Republican lawmakers.
Probably followed by “lack of trust” as a close second.
That’s part of it.
The other part is doctors who don’t give a rip about you when you come to them with a real problem they have to work at to solve.
The medical community has destroyed people’s trust in it all by themselves.
Fortunate indeed, is the person who goes to them for help and actually benefits from it.
Once upon a time, health care was generally affordable, unless you were poor, and then you couldn’t afford it, or got crap service.
That situation was unacceptable to the socialists who set about “transforming America”. Now no one can really afford health care, and it’s all crap service. Leveled that playing field real well.
Thanks, Obama.
The more the government helps people afford a good or service the more unaffordable the good or service will become without the help. Eventually the effort runs short on funds but the effects of the meddling in the industry live on making the product worse and less affordable.
The cost of healthcare really is out of control.
If people really want affordable health care, these are the things that need to change.
1. Get the lawyers out. Seriously, this is driving up the cost by multiples of 3-5 times (probably more IMHO). You can’t control anything until you control the lawyers.
2. Separation of insurance companies, hospitals, and physicians. They can’t own one another. Area monopolies are becoming a big problem.
3. Force people to have health care insurance (or be in a co-op), it can’t be ‘optional’ anymore.
4. Reduce medication expenses by ALWAYS giving people a generic option.
5. People need really important understanding of cost versus ‘success’ for many diseases. Spending a million dollars for chemo to extend life 2-3 months doesn’t make sense.
Now the medical community is a wing of the US Government and the left, and no longer your doctor, the trust factor is gone.
Healthcare is now financialized.
It is going to get much, much worse
Yup, just like education, the prices get higher when the government tentacles grow.
For this, you can thank health insurance.
Think about it: What if you had an insurance card for groceries. Go to the store, simply fill your grocery cart and check out using the card. Now be honest, what would keep everybody, including you, from buying anything and everything they wanted—expensive cuts of meats, high dollar foods—regardless of the cost? Why would it matter? Somebody else is paying for it. Eventually the price of everything would skyrocket, becoming too expensive for everyone.
This is the way our healthcare system works now. Everyone is buying all the healthcare they want, regardless of the cost. And why not? Somebody else is paying for it. (And what makes it worse is that the government is paying for the insurance card for a large number of those people).
Just what I was going to post, Ocare was SUPPOSED to solve this problem as with EVERYTHING else the government does problem NOT SOLVED!! Also under Obama was the ENORMOUS amount of money for infrastructure which NEVER happened because all those shovel ready jobs were NOT shovel ready!! WHERE the hell is all the money designated for all of the infrastructure???
I have five doctors and my health is not bad.
“Go to the store, simply fill your grocery cart and check out using the card.”
They already have that. It’s called credit cards like VISA and Mastercard.
The reason medical care is so expensive is people take advantage of it for their separate gain. Lawyers are the biggest offenders. Someone gets hurt, your fault, my fault, nobody’s fault, and here comes some lawyer with a million dollar lawsuit of which the person could get maybe a third of it while the john law collects the rest. That is, if it makes it to court. Generally most are settled for far less and the only people getting screwed are the doctors. So the docs have to spend a lot on insurance and that is passed to the customer. I have a neurosurgeon friend here in the northwest that pays $90K annually just for malpractice insurance so if something happens, again whose fault(?), just basically trying to stay out of court. If you want to blame someone for perpetuating the problem, don’t look at the system. Look at those that created it and everyone else is forced to use the only game in town. Make sure you push the right buttons in the voting booth. The Affordable Care Act was created by politicians, not by doctors or patients. And the fed politicians don’t even use it as they have their own free healthcare system called the DC Health Link.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/18/politics/senate-health-care-benefits/index.html
And a lot of your tax dollars made it possible.
wy69
“Force people to have health care insurance (or be in a co-op), it can’t be ‘optional’ anymore.”
The opposite would actually be better.
Ban health insurance.
Force everybody to pay for their own health care.
The costs would go down in a big hurry.
You left out the part where insurance companies are skimming obscene amounts off the top. Everybody wants to point the finger at illegals going to the emergency room but that’s a very small part of it. Look up who owns the most expensive penthouses in New York, they’re all insurance company executives. They’ve got the perfect scam, the public is mandated to buy your product and you can basically charge whatever you want. Obamacare was a massive giveaway to them. Follow the money and see who’s getting rich off of the incredible costs of healthcare today. It’s insurance companies. They get away with it because they own Congress. While everyone is blaming nurses making too much money insurance companies are robbing us blind.
“Probably followed by “lack of trust” as a close second.”
The government has used their regulatory and monetary power to impose their will on physicians and hospitals. At this point my trust in the medical profession is rather limited.
Uh, Obamacare forced everyone to get health insurance or be fined. Forcing people to get generic is a very bad idea. There is no quality control with the ingredients (and they are made in China) and they don’t always work the same or as well as generic.
I do not seek health care because doctors and nurses are bought and paid for by Pfizer and other companies. They were the enforcement arm of the democrat party’s tyranny.
Take a trip to Mexico, discard all belongings, walk back across the border and say your name is Humano, and you will get all the medical help you need.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.