A new study underlines
the fact that more adults in the U.S. are shying away from non-emergency
healthcare.
By Katie Way Feb 4 2020, 2:23pm
A trip to the
doctor’s office (within the for-profit American healthcare system, of course)
is increasingly a roll of the
financial dice, which is making it harder and harder to just...
go to the doctor. This has become very clear anecdotally, but the stories are
often muddied by the fact that they involve the experiences of under-insured or
uninsured patients.
However, a study
published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed
a sharp decline in the number of annual primary care visits, by
privately insured adults. Between 2008-2016, visits to primary care
providers declined by 24.2%, while the proportion of adults with zero primary
care provider visits in a given year rose from 38.1% to 46.4%. Young adults,
ages 18-34, were more likely to opt out of their primary care provider visits.
Another 2019 study on
adults who see a primary care provider showed they are “significantly more
likely to fill more prescriptions and to have a routine preventive visit in the
past year,” according to Harvard Health Blog,
as well as “receive more high-value care such as cancer screenings, including
colorectal cancer screening and mammography.”
But prohibitive costs
make that kind of high-quality care a luxury item. Best case scenario, a
patient goes to one preventative care visit a year and the story ends there.
Worst case? Their doctor discovers they have bigger health issues, triggering a
series of costly followup appointments, possibly with specialists, plus a
treatment regimen to boot. Sounds like the perfect way for the
average adult in the U.S. to get a jumpstart on the $5,000 they’ll spend on healthcare in
a given year!
The study also found
that the number of preventative care visits and visits to alternative venues
like emergency rooms and urgent care centers rose, but the rate of
problem-based “sick” visits fell—as the out-of-pocket cost of sick visits rose.
The authors attribute
this to possible “decreased real or perceived visit needs, financial
deterrents, and use of alternative sources of care.” In other words, people
feel so poor and distrustful of the system they are denying they are sick or
trying to fix problems themselves, again, and we can’t stress this enough, even
if they have insurance.
Not only does
healthcare cost way too much,
it leaves sensitive personal information in the hands of companies willing
to sell it to tech behemoths like
Google; results in charges that are frequently
inaccurate; and forces people outside of the regulated market in
order to obtain life-saving medications like insulin or estrogen. It’s not
a question of whether or not Americans want to live healthy, dignified
lives—it’s about whether or not they can even afford to.
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