How Many of Your Patients are
Not on the Best Therapy Due to High Costs?
How many are
not compliant with their meds due to costs?
How many are
too embarrassed to say anything?
More than 41
million Americans had trouble getting medical care or had to delay
care in 2001, mostly because of cost.
This is a
surprising and somewhat ominous result given the context of the
times. The nation would have expected to see an improvement in
access and fewer delays during the economic boom. And, now with
the recession, there's real concern that we could have some
significant declines in access.
Getting care
was most difficult for uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, or those
with low incomes or in poor health. In 2001, the uninsured were
three times as likely to not get care. Slightly more than 15% of
the uninsured delayed care, compared with 8.6% of the insured.
More than one quarter of those who were uninsured and in poor
health said they could not get needed care.
Of those who
could not get care or delayed it, 62% said cost was the reason. It
was the dominant worry for 90% or more of the uninsured, and for
half of those with insurance.
Health care
cost is particularly burdensome for our older population and those
with lower income. Those with incomes below the federal poverty
level are projected to pay, on average, 35 percent of their
incomes on health costs. More significantly, however, those with
incomes below the federal poverty level who do not receive
Medicaid assistance are projected to pay, on average, about
half their income on health costs.
“The number of
people we see in need of aid with their prescriptions medications
is overwhelming’ said Deanna McKennis of DiabetesMeds (www.DiabetesMeds.org).
‘Our research shows that, on average, the 34.3 million Medicare
beneficiaries age 65 and over, and living in the community, will
spent an average of 19 percent of their income, or $2,149, on
health care costs.’ Many people qualify for aid from
pharmaceutical companies every year and most don’t know that the
resources are available. ‘Since
the median income of older persons in 2000 was $19,168 for males
and $10,899 for females a large portion of the senior population
qualifies for help from the pharmaceutical companies.
Health costs
varies by whether the patient is enrolled in traditional
fee-for-service Medicare or in a Health Maintenance Organization
(HMO), and by whether the patient has Medicaid coverage. The 25.9
million Medicare beneficiaries who are in the traditional
fee-for-service program (and not enrolled in Medicaid) are
projected to spend, on average, 21 percent of their income, or
$2,454, out-of- pocket on health care. The 4.5 million Medicare
participants age 65 and older expected to be enrolled in HMOs in
1997 are projected to spend an average of 16 percent of income, or
$1,775, in out-of-pocket health care costs.
For
information on how patients can remove the burden of the high cost
of medications without the red tape, Visit
Diabetes Meds
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