You have made a lot of good points about the impact of deductible and co-payment on patients seeking health care. Did you know that 51.1% of low-income families reported have to delay or forgo treatment due to cost of care compared to 34.8% of higher income families? Based on this finding it was suggested to policymakers that deductibles be set based on income and family size. (Anonymous, 2010) What do you think? Would this really make a difference or do you think that the low-income population would still have to put off needed treatment even if the deductibles were based off of income? Another possible reason that care has to be delayed would be the families chief source of income is the one needing treatment and not being able to go without
Many people are seriously ill when they seek treatment because they lacked enough money in their insurance for treatment (Bush, 2015). Although people have reported general satisfaction with their health plans under PPACA, a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey has revealed that affordability is a concern for those who buy their own health insurance. 46% of those with both ACA-compliant and noncompliant plans reported it was “very” or “somewhat” difficult for them to afford their monthly health insurance premium (Medical Economics, 2015). Cost of care has been a longstanding barrier to care for minority groups. The survey did not find an improvement in Blacks and Asians skipping care due to cost concerns. (Pallarito, 2015).
The only way for some people to reasonably afford health insurance is to buy a policy with an extremely high deductible. This does not seem like a fair or reasonable exchange.
Money plays a huge role in access, therefore it is a vital issue to discuss. Within the current system, lack of money results in lack of health care, which leaves thousands of people without any health care coverage. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of people paying for health insurance increased 30%, however income only raised 3% (Health Care Problems). Adequate income is a necessity and unfortunately that is not present. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average annual premium across the country is $16,000. Currently, the average annual income in the United States is $51,107. Mint Money Management suggests that about 4-6% of one’s total income should be spent on insurance, including life, disability, and health insurance. However, the averages in the United States show that the average person spends about 31% of their income on health insurance, which is not financially beneficial. When this rise in health insurance is not parallel to the inflation of income, innocent people are left without a method to achieve health care. There is a program for those who can’t afford health insurance out of pocket nor have access to it, and that is called Medicaid. Issues still exist with the program. There is only so much funding, which leaves many still uninsured. Additionally, people with Medicaid have difficulty
Recently, a Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP), was created. There are many variables to a CDHP, such as benefits covered and coinsurance amounts, however there is one thing that all CDHP’s have in common – a high deductible. By having a high deductible, such as $1,200, it forces the plan participant to think about the medical services they are seeking. Do they really have to go to the emergency room for that cough or can they go to urgent care, or better yet, their physician the next day. When the plan
Recently the Untied States top priority has been to provide accessible and affordable health care to every American. Those that lack access to coverage find it much more difficult to seek proper treatment and when they do they maybe left with astronomical medical bills. The CommanWealth Fund found that one-third or thirty three percent of Americans forgo health care because of costs and one-fifth or twenty percent are thus left with medical bills that have problems being able to pay. The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act (2010), has mandated that every person have health coverage in order
Health care coverage for individuals and small businesses will become more affordable and accessible (House Committee, 2010). The bill erases deductibles and co-payments for preventive care. Due to the recession, many American families struggle to pay the co-payment at their doctor’s office. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does offer money directly to the consumer by eliminating co-payments at the doctor’s office (House Committee, 2010). There will be incentives for doctors to practice in poor areas of the country. For example, a new doctor fresh out of medical school would receive additional federal funds to establish their business and hire qualified personnel (House Committee, 2010).
The cost of health care has been at the forefront of politics for years. It is one of the most talked about topics not just in political venues but also country wide. Every American has an opinion on how our economy can be fixed and they are passionate about health care reform. The price of insurance alone causes many Americans to not have coverage. For those that can afford coverage, the struggle to pay co pays is immensely crippling their bank accounts. Of these burdens on Americans today, the most frightening fact lies in the cost of prescription medications.
After the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, much of the uninsured population in the United States were finally given the access to health insurance (Shi & Singh, 2015). Prior to the passing of the Act, those who did not have insurance still managed to seek medical attention, whether paying for medical care out of their own pockets or seeking the assistance of government programs. As reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013, 13.4% of the population in the U.S. were uninsured during the entire year (Smith & Medalia, 2014). Still, a great number of uninsured who sought medical care were unable to pay for those services, this is referred as uncompensated care. In 2013 the cost incurred from
I will compare the current health care system with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law on March 23, 2010. The current system, which is being phased out between 2011 and 2018 is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an increase of more than two million people from 2005 (Rover, 2011) the increasingly complex warfare between insurers and hospitals over who pays the bills is gobbling up a great deal of money and the end result is that the United States pays roughly twice as much per
When you look over your health insurance choices this year, there will be an option to select high-deductible health plan on the menu. These types of healthcare plans are increasingly becoming popular amongst healthcare seekers and consumers. So, why would anyone choose an insurance policy with greater out-of-pocket costs? Plans with higher deductibles typically have lower premiums, so you'll keep more of your paycheck. A High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) is a plan that has a higher annual deductible than a typical health insurance plan; maximum limit on the sum of the annual deductible and out-of-pocket medical expenses that an enrollee must pay for covered expenses. The out-of-pocket expenses for a High Deductible Health Plan are
Despite the improvements made toward health reform, there are still problems that need to be address. There are still cost related access problems among insured adults, particularly among people with lower incomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2014, 33 percent of adults who had been insured all year with incomes under 200 percent of poverty and 25 percent with incomes above that level said they did not get needed care because of costs in the past 12 months (Collins et al., 2015). The high deductibles and cost sharing in both employer and individually purchased private plans lead many adults to delay or avoid needed care (Collins et al., 2015). Also there is still a large share of adults who were insured all year but still struggle to pay their medical bills. People with lower incomes reported these problems at the highest rates. One third (34%) of adults with incomes under 200 percent of poverty who were insured all year
Even with some especial programs like ACA, a lot of people can’t afford for coverage due to extreme rate of poverty.”Cost still poses a major barrier to coverage for the uninsured. In 2015, 46% of uninsured adults said that the primary reason they were uninsured was because it was too expensive, making it the most common reason cited for being uninsured”(Key
Healthcare in the United States is in a crisis situation. Healthcare costs are rising to the point where people are required to pay their health insurance premiums and deductibles over having enough money to cover groceries to feed the family. It seems our government is at odds in terms of the success with the Affordable Care Act and the outcomes we are witnessing from its’ implementation in our country. Many Americans understand the incentives of having healthcare insurance coverage and the benefits it can provide. With so many more individuals entering the healthcare insurance marketplace due to the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act we also see an impact to the supply and demand of healthcare availability and healthy outcomes.
The US healthcare system is currently undergoing what is arguably its biggest change since its enactment in 1935 with the Social Security Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama in an attempt to bring cost free preventative care to all American citizens. And while this may sound like good news since it will help take care of the 54 million Americans that were uninsured in 2010 when this Act was signed (Kocher 2010) not all of these changes to the healthcare system are beneficial. Many citizens will find themselves penalized by the fees and requirements of the ACA, along with many others
One of the greatest changes in healthcare in the past ten years has been the rise of managed care, much to the displeasure of many patients and physicians alike. Managed care arose out of concern about spiraling healthcare costs and was designed to encourage physicians to give patients treatments that were cost-effective out of their own financial interests. "The consumer strategy was directed at imposing some barriers to use by levying various forms of co-insurance. The most common approaches used either deductibles (where the consumer paid the first portion of the bill a technique familiar in other types of insurance) or co-payments (where the consumer paid a portion of the bill and the insurance company the rest) or a combination of both' (Kane et al 1994). Managed care has given health insurance companies an increasingly significant voice in how treatment is administered and allocated. Managed care has proliferated in the past decade despite considerable criticism of the practice of 'nickel and diming' patients as well as the considerable bureaucratic red tape it is has generated. Also, research indicates that healthy, well-insured patients tend to over-consume care without meaningful co-pays but poorer, sicker patients can be deterred even by moderate co-payments and suffer negative health consequences (Kane et al 1994). However, managed care has not gone away and is a reality that all healthcare