A new Commonwealth Fund report indicates that a large proportion of Americans avoid seeing doctors because of increasingly high out-of-pocket expenses, even though they have health insurance. Approximately 23% of Americans ages 19 to 64 (31 million people) are considered underinsured because of high health insurance deductibles. The report also indicated that a quarter of underinsured adults with at least one chronic condition avoided filling a prescription or skipped doses due to costs. It also highlighted the need to create policies that encourage patients to seek out preventive care. The authors recommend innovations in benefit design that slow growth in deductibles and emphasize incentives that encourage people to utilize, rather than delay, timely health care services. To read more on this issue, click here.
Last Updated on April 24, 2020 by Aimed Alliance
