WELL STATES HEALTHCARE

There is no question that costs associated with medical care and health insurance continue to skyrocket. While there may be more than one answer as to why this remains the case, an interesting study by the Journal of the American Medical Association points to the fact that the U.S. outspends most every other high-income nation in multiple aspects of healthcare, including the cost of pharmaceuticals, hospital services, diagnostic care and doctor salaries.

One of the most prominent areas of high spend in the U.S., however, is in administrative costs. Our country spends eight percent of its GDP on healthcare administration, compared to between one and three percent in each of the other eleven nations evaluated. What’s more, American healthcare professionals also reported a higher level of “administrative burden.” For example, healthcare providers must fill out an average of 20,000 forms a year just to stay compliant!

Regardless of the source of the high costs, consumers are feeling the burn. So much so that one of the unintended fallouts of this never-ending, meteoric rise of healthcare costs is that fewer people are bothering to see their doctor at all. It’s not the fear of doctors keeping patients away, its the fear of the exorbitant bills that will follow.

Bucking the trend    

Despite conventional wisdom, it is not just the elderly or uninsured avoiding doctors. According to a 2017 survey conducted by the West Health Institute, and non-partisan research institution NORCp at the University of Chicago, as many as half of Gen X’ers avoided the doctor even when they were sick, and 25% of those over 60 years old did as well. Considering that 86% of those surveyed had health insurance, it was clear that wasn’t a deterrent to avoiding sky high medical bills.

Younger generations are even more inclined to avoid medical costs as they are typically less financially stable, have smaller savings set aside, and are more likely to be underinsured or uninsured. All of these factors contribute to a general sense of worry and concern when looming medical issues come up – not just illness but injury as well.

The prevailing wisdom across all generations is that it is only growing more difficult to afford medical costs – between 2015 and 2016 there was a near 10% increase in those who said insurance premiums were difficult to pay, or who struggled to pay deductibles, co-pays or prescription drugs (Kaiser Health Foundation).

Too much confusion

The fear of rising medical costs isn’t just rooted in the numbers – it turns out people are overly confused as well, and that confusion leads to inertia. According to the WHI/NORCp survey, more than half of all respondents said they received a medical bill in the last year for something they believed should have been covered under insurance, and 53% said medical bills were more than expected.

This lack of transparency drives a fear-of-the-unknown mentality in individuals, who would rather suffer through poor health or an injury than risk significant and sometimes even catastrophic financial burden. For many, just having transparent and accurate information would be enough of a catalyst to seek care, but more often than not finding that information and feeling confident in its accuracy is too daunting a task.

The long term consequence

The most obvious consequence of this fear of medical costs is that fewer people seek treatment early, when an illness, disease or injury can be better managed. Ironically, this means that healthcare costs just go up – both for the individual and the industry itself. Studies have proven time and again that preventive care is the most cost effective treatment a society can undergo.

Yet even with the best preventive care options, illness and injury still happen unexpectedly. At Well States, we work with people from all walks of life who have experienced the unexpected – an accident that has resulted in injury and required medical attention. We recognize the need for everyone to have access to quality medical care without the added burden that comes from trying to manage unknown and potentially exorbitant costs.

That’s why we work with care providers and injury attorneys alike, helping to connect individuals to top of the line medical teams and facilities even while they are managing the legal claims process. We oversee the administrative tasks and facilitate the payments process so our attorney partners can focus on the legal process, our care provider partners can focus on medical care, and the individuals we work with can focus on what they need most to recover and rehabilitate.