The latest proof that health insurance is an obstacle to obtaining medical care – not the solution
Bottom Line: The concept I'm about to explain isn't new. The numbers are though, and it's clear that the more we lean on health insurance, the less health care we're receiving. According to a recent study from the WestHealth Institute and the University of Chicago...
44% of Americans said they passed up needed healthcare last year due to the cost of healthcare
40% skipped recommended medical care due to costs
Those are huge numbers that are only growing by the year along with the lack of affordability of healthcare. For years we'd heard that too many people were uninsured, hence the advent of Obamacare. As I argued back then and have continued through the years – health insurance is the biggest obstacle to affordable healthcare. Not the answer. Here's the latest which once again unfortunately illustrates the point....
86% of those who skipped recommended/needed medical care had health insurance
Health insurance under our current insurance first model literally robs us of the ability to be responsible consumers of healthcare by removing our ability to be good consumers of it with service/price transparency. We desperately need to break the back of the existing model which requires signing docs saying we'll pay whatever an insurance company doesn't, for services that are yet determined at a cost that we're completely unaware of in advance. Most people have plans with deductibles that average over $1,000 per person. That's essentially catastrophic care for most Americans. That's why it's critically important that we move to a health insurance model that works as all other consumer insurance models do. For all of the regular healthcare needs we shop based on prices and service and pay for them out of pocket. For emergencies and major medical needs, we'd file a claim. We've proven to be great consumers when given an opportunity. We're robbed of the opportunity in the area of greatest expense aside from the roof over our heads, and our health is suffering in addition to our wallet, as a result.