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ck4829

(35,900 posts)
Mon Nov 20, 2023, 07:26 AM Nov 2023

Nearly half of American adults faced medical bill issues in last year - survey

High-income Americans are almost as likely to defer healthcare because of cost as people with low or average incomes in eight other developed countries, a new survey brief by the Commonwealth Fund finds.

The survey findings also show that nearly half of American adults (46%) faced a problem with a medical bill in the last year, and almost half with low or average incomes (46%) skipped or delayed needed care because of price – the highest rate in any of nine countries analyzed.

“In some cases, lower-income people in other countries are better off than higher-income Americans,” said Munira Gunja, lead author of the study and senior researcher at the Commonwealth Fund , though both “lower-income and higher-income adults both really struggle to use their healthcare”.

The US fared poorly on accessibility metrics in general, but perhaps most surprising is how even high-income Americans are disadvantaged by healthcare prices relative to other nations. Almost one-third of high-income Americans (29%) said they skipped or delayed care – such as filling a prescription or undergoing a test – because of a cost-related problem in the last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/16/hospital-bill-healthcare-cost-data

"World's greatest healthcare" should actually mean something, it should mean that we don't see this.

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Nearly half of American adults faced medical bill issues in last year - survey (Original Post) ck4829 Nov 2023 OP
There is no metric that indicates we Voltaire2 Nov 2023 #1
The pisser is that I have "top-notch" health insurance that refuses to pay my doctor's claims. Midnight Writer Nov 2023 #2
That sucks XanaDUer2 Dec 2023 #3

Voltaire2

(14,700 posts)
1. There is no metric that indicates we
Mon Nov 20, 2023, 07:36 AM
Nov 2023

have anything other than a mediocre and very expensive health care system. We do not have anything remotely close to the world’s greatest healthcare system.

Midnight Writer

(22,969 posts)
2. The pisser is that I have "top-notch" health insurance that refuses to pay my doctor's claims.
Mon Nov 20, 2023, 11:12 AM
Nov 2023

There is no way to win this game.

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