Americans Cut Back on Visits to Doctor

[cynatnite]

Insured Americans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share of the costs.

The drop in usage is showing up as health-care companies report financial results. Insurers, lab-testing companies, hospitals, and doctor-billing concerns say that patient visits, drug prescriptions, and procedures were down in the second quarter from year-ago levels.

"People just aren't using health care like they have," said Wayne DeVeydt, WellPoint Inc.'s chief financial officer, in an interview Wednesday. "Utilization is lower than we expected, and it's unusual."

Others say that consumers are beginning to forgo elective procedures like knee replacements. "We have a very weak economy and it's just a different environment for the elective parts of health care," said Paul Ginsburg, a health economist who runs the Center for Studying Health System Change and has been analyzing health-company earnings. But "this could go beyond the recession. Being a less aggressive consumer of health care is here to stay."

Continued weak demand could eventually put downward pressure on spiralling health-care costs, a long-sought goal of policy makers. It could also force insurers to lower premiums.

http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/110187/americans-cut-back-on-doctor-visits?mod=insurance-health

[Fumesucker]

1. Heath Insurance Reform: Mishun Akomplished

I bet the elites aren't cutting back on their doctor visits.

You know, the ones that voted for Health Insurance Reform.

Enjoy your mandated private insurance that you'll be using less often because you can't afford to use it.

[ejpoeta]

2. it's unusual that when they raise copays and costs in general, that less people are going

to the doctor or getting prescriptions filled. i was surprised to hear from my sister who works for the iRS that they are paying copays of $75 for medicine. for her daughter's seizure medicine she just paid $50 and then another $50 the next day. why oh why would people be cutting back on these kinds of expenditures! (sarcasm).

they keep talking about the healthcare law, and i can't help but wonder.... they say the companies can't keep you out because of preexisting conditions.... but does it say they can't charge you up the wazoo to cover you? i'm glad we got the changes we did, but essentially the companies can still charge us whatever they want and people just can't afford it. and people are going to die because they simply can't afford to use the insurance.

[DailyGrind51]

3. I still go once a year for tumor markers, hoping the "shark isn't back in the water"!

[mdmc]

4. I had to go to the doctor yesterday

It is the end of the month and I do a lot of typing, writing and filing of documents.
I'm left handed and about two weeks ago my left hand started to "go numb" (felt like it was asleep).
On Monday I started to get severe pain in the hand.
By Wednesday I was unable to sleep or move the hand at all.
I went to a walk in clinic to get some pain relief. The MD said he couldn't do anything for me (and that I owe him $25.oo for telling me to go to another clinic).
Yesterday I went to my RA and got some pain killers and steroids. Of course that cost me $90.oo for meds and co-payments.

I would / might have lost my job if I didn't have the $90.oo to receive enough treatment to go on working for another month.

It is very quiet around my neck of the woods when someone tries to praise health care reform.

[madrchsod]

5. i can`t afford the co-pays.

i need two non life threating surgeries but i can`t afford the co-pays. i have to save my money for my heart problems.

welcome to america where we have to decide how much we can afford to stay alive.

[FormerDittoHead]

6. If I'm not DYING, I will not see my doctor - compare that with Japan...

On average, the Japanese sees their Doctor FOURTEEN times a year.

If I go see my doctor, whatever I have will be paid by my insurance, and I have ABSOLUTELY NO BELIEF that my records will be kept private.

That "in order to be covered" by my insurance company, my records "must" be shared and at that point, they are instantly merged with a corporate-shared database that will be used against me at any/every opportunity.

So if I go in complaining about dandruff, I'll be dropped if I develop brain cancer (head-stuff, you know).

And I have NO confidence that the reform has made things better, as they can't drop me, but they can simply charge me about what I MAKE, until I sell everything I have, and get treated in Medicaid II.

[4_TN_TITANS]

7. I've got what would be considered 'good insurance'

and the cost of my prescriptions have jumped up. I'm taking a fraction of what I'm supposed to take for my ADD meds just to stretch them out longer. The insurance giants are pricing themselves out of customers.

[justinaforjustice]

8. I Pay 0 for Insurance, No Co-Pays, and Free Drugs (mostly)

In the last two months I've seen four specialists and two internists, had an EEG, two sets of x-rays and a full spectrum of lab tests. The cost to me was zero. How was this miracle possible? I am living in Venezuela where there is a constitutional right to health care for all.

It is such an over-whelming relief to be able to go to the doctor when I have a medical problem, and not fear it will send me into bankruptcy.

For the price of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all Americans could have free, universal health care.