Survey says
Thursday, November 13 2008
The Post has an article about the recent Commonwealth Fund survey of chronically ill people. If you only read the article, stick with it through page two:
More than 50 percent of U.S. patients went without care because of cost. Dutch and British patients rarely go without care due to costs. [...] U.S. patients have higher out-of-pocket costs than other countries. Forty-one percent of American patients spent more than $1,000 a year on out-of-pocket expenses.
Worth keeping in mind is that the US has by far the highest per-capita health care expenses, so the notion that shifting more of the cost burden onto patients will help reduce costs doesn’t align well with reality.
Granted the Commonwealth Fund has some bias, but just about everything I’ve seen from this report is reflected in my own experience.
