- Health insurance costs have been rising, and more of a financial burden has fallen on the patients.
- Evidence shows that insurance status and financial concerns can cause people to delay or skip care.
- As of 2020, approximately 57 percent of workers in the United States were enrolled in a high-deductible healthcare plan.
New research published this month in the journal Circulation found that people with high-deductible health insurance plans are less likely to seek medical care for chest pain than those with low-deductible health insurance plans.
Health insurance costs have been rising, and in recent years more of a financial burden has fallen on the patient.
Evidence shows that insurance status and financial concerns can cause people to delay or skip care.
Patients with lower socioeconomic status are disproportionately impacted — both financially and medically.
This study is the first to look at how those concerns specifically impact patients’ willingness to go to the emergency room for chest pain — a symptom that may be a sign of an underlying heart problem like coronary heart disease.
“While it is not surprising, it is still very sobering. We need to have rational insurance design. And when the design of the policy leads to worse outcomes, that is a major problem,” said Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of radiology and public health at Yale University.
Source: healthline