Health care costs are causing Americans with health insurance to act more like people who don't by skipping appointments or suffering chronic problems longer, a recent survey found.
The survey by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions conducted in June indicated a quarter of the respondents opted not to see a physician because of economic uncertainty and higher out-of-pocket costs, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Sunday. Roughly one in eight respondents said they reduced their healthcare spending significantly.
"We've been living in a dream world, assuming this is somehow different from managing other aspects of our lives," said Lee Beecher, a St. Louis Park, Minn., psychiatrist and president of the Minnesota Physician-Patient Alliance. "In economic hard times, people are pulling in their belts."
The trend has enhanced the profits of health insurers, a study of several companies found. Insurers set premiums this year on the expectation Americans who put off care during the worst of the recession would return to more normal patterns. But higher deductibles and other insurance provisos requiring people to sometimes pay thousands of dollars for procedures is holding back use of medical services.
