Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Christina Heath manages a branch of a medical-equipment firm. Her husband, Thomas, works in information-technology security for a local company.
Despite those two good jobs, the Grove City woman has been putting off an MRI and back surgery for two years, citing the anticipated price tag: more than $6,000.
“They’ve already told me that it’s getting worse, not better,” Mrs. Heath, 53, said of her back. “I’ve got to get this done, but I just don’t know where I’m going to come up with $6,000.”
The family’s employer-sponsored health coverage has a $6,000 annual deductible. They have four sons, including a 13-year-old and 15-year-old at home, but the family might sell their second car and use that money to pay for her scan and surgery.
Her husband’s employer deposits $1,200 in the family’s health-savings account each year, but that money helps cover her husband’s prescription-drug costs.
“Even with a good income, we struggle,” Mrs. Heath said.
High deductibles and other out-of-pocket health costs have put more families — many of them solidly middle-class — on a financial tightrope, limiting their access to care.
Research by Families USA this year found that nearly 30 percent of adults with deductibles of at least $1,500 per person decided to forgo needed medical care because they could not afford it.
By comparison, for those with deductibles below $1,500 per person, 20 percent went without needed medical care because of the cost.
In many cases, patients with very high deductibles get their coverage through a job.
Some officials say one fix would be “value-based insurance design,” which ensures consumers have access to services that provide the biggest bang for the health-care dollar before they meet their full deductible.
Gov. John Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation has a goal to have 80 percent of Ohioans in some value-based payment model within a few years.
Such plans are meant to “make sure people can manage chronic illness before it becomes an emergency,” said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, private insurance program director for Families USA and a co-author of its report on the impact of high deductibles.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/22/pinched-by-deductibles-some-forgo-medical-care.html