A sick economy means even sicker Americans, who skip doctor visits, skimp on their medicine, and put off mammograms, Pap smears and other tests.
“I have to pretty much be very ill to go to the doctor,” said Julie Shelley, a 49-year-old office manager and mother of three from West Milton, Ohio. “I’m probably at the age where I should have a checkup or physical. I’m not going to do it. I am last on the list.”
This summer, Illinois resident Donald Hendricks lost his job at an event-planning company. He could not afford gas money to drive two of his six children to the doctor when they came down with a fever and sore throat several weeks ago. Instead, he gave them soup and soda instead, and they got better.
“I never felt the crunch like this before,” Hendricks said.
In Indianapolis, Raechelle Miles lost her job at an auto parts plant in July, and lost nearly everything else in a tornado. She can’t afford a trip to the dentist, even though her dental fillings are falling out. Miles realizes this may lead to more expensive treatment later on.
“The health care system was not in a good state really any time in the last five to 10 years. This has simply stressed it to a very severe degree,” said Dr. Eric Schackow, a family physician in Chicago. “It does become very disheartening and discouraging because we find ourselves with our fingers in the dike.”
An increasing number of Americans are postponing needed health care, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this week.
Almost one-third of Americans reported they had skipped a recommended test or treatment, up from 24 percent. About one-fifth said their condition got worse as a result.
A July survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners found that 11 percent of Americans had either reduced the number of prescription medicines they take or cut the dosage by such means as splitting pills in half.
Elective surgeries like hip and knee replacements, diagnostic tests and outpatient procedures fell roughly 1 to 2 percent in recent months at many hospitals, said Dick Clarke, president of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
U.S. hospitals are reporting an increase in emergency room patients, according to the American Hospital Association. Clarke said that includes a rise in uninsured patients with conditions that could have been treated elsewhere.
The U.S. unemployment rate has climbed from 4.7 percent to 6.1 percent over the past year, which means many jobless people have lost their health insurance.
Shelley, the Ohio office manager, said she is putting her husband’s medical needs first. He is a substitute teacher who has had kidney and pancreas transplants, is on a dozen medications and needs blood work every month.
“It’s tough even when times are good,” she said. “The out-of-pocket is still thousands a year.”
Dr. Ted Epperly, a family physician at a Boise, Idaho, clinic, said office visits were down 20 percent in August. He noticed them mostly in prenatal visits by pregnant women and checkups for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes.
“The longer it goes and the more skipped visits, the greater the opportunity there will be for bad outcomes,” Epperly said. “It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.”
Walgreen Co. pharmacies are calling customers, making emotional arguments for why they should be getting prescriptions refilled. “For example, do they want to be around when their kids grow up, or their grandkids?” Jeff Rein, Walgreen’s chief executive, told analysts last month.
At Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus, Dr. Andrew Thomas said one of his patients put off having an MRI done for severe back pain “because literally she didn’t have the gas money to drive across town.”
Thomas said patients can be embarrassed if they are struggling to pay for medicine. He offered them this advice, “If you’re on a bunch of different medications, ask your doctor, ‘Which one of these could I get by on for six months without taking?'”
“Your doctor might say, ‘Some of these are imperative, but if you really need to save money, these are the ones I could cut out or change the dosage.'”
—
On the Net:
Comments