Faced With High Deductibles, Patients Are Delaying Health Care So As Not To Rack Up High Bills
Even with insurance, health care bills can be daunting and prompt people to delay care for problems that could have been caught earlier. Women with low incomes who had high-deductible insurance plans waited an average of 1.6 months longer for diagnostic breast imaging, 2.7 months for first biopsy, 6.6 months for first early-stage breast cancer diagnosis and 8.7 months for first chemotherapy, compared with low-income women with low-deductible plans.
NPR:
High-Deductible Insurance Linked To Delays In Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment
In 2017, Susan learned that she carries a genetic mutation that may elevate her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer to 72 percent. Her doctor explained that individuals who have this mutation in the BRCA2 gene have choices in treatment. Some people opt for a preventive double mastectomy. But Susan could instead choose to undergo increased cancer screenings, which, for her, would mean an annual mammogram and annual MRI scan. (Stallings, 4/18)
In other health costs news —
KCUR:
Farm Bureaus Make An Attempt At Affordable Health Insurance, But Plans Exclude Some
In a recent national survey, farmers said the biggest threat to their livelihoods wasn’t low commodity prices or global trade policies. It was the rising cost of health insurance. It’s one of the reasons why state farm bureaus have jumped into the insurance game in Iowa, Tennessee and Nebraska, and are trying to in Kansas. Members of the Kansas Farm Bureau spend an average of 30 to 40 percent of their annual incomes on health coverage, according to KFB President and CEO Terry Holdren. (McLean, 4/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Health-Care Stock Rout Deepens Amid Political Pressure
Health-care stocks are trailing the broader market by a historic margin early in 2019, the latest example of how political shifts have buffeted certain sectors. With another slide Wednesday, the S&P 500 health-care sector is now down 0.9% for the year, compared with a 16% advance for the broader index. If that gap holds through the end of the month, it would mark just the second time since 2000 that an S&P 500 sector has lagged behind by a margin that big in the first four months of the year, according to Dow Jones Market Data. (Ramkumar, 4/17)
