Americans More Likely To Skimp On Medical Care

American adults are more likely to go without medical care because of costs than the citizens of 10 other developed nations, according to a survey by The Commonwealth Fund.

The survey found that Americans are also more likely to have trouble paying medical bills, encounter high medical bills even when insured, and have disputes with their insurers or discover insurance wouldn't pay as they expected.

The report was prepared as a way to highlight the need for Affordable Care Act reforms that will ensure access to health care, protect people from medical debt, and simplify health insurance, the Fund said.

According to the U.S. stands out for the most negative insurance-related experiences. One third of U.S. adults went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of costs, compared to as few as five percent to six percent in the Netherlands and the U.K., according to the study.

In addition, one-fifth of U.S. adults had major problems paying medical bills, compared to nine percent in France, the next highest country, two percent in the U.K., three percent in Germany, and four percent in the Netherlands. Uninsured and insured U.S. adults reported equally high rates of out-of-pocket costs, with 35 percent of U.S. adults paying $1,000 or more out-of-pocket in the past year for medical bills, significantly higher than all of the other countries.

The study analyzes findings from the Commonwealth Fund 2010 International Health Policy Survey in Eleven Countries, focusing on insurance and access to health care experiences reported by 19,700 adults from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Higher income adults got more care

Not surprisingly, the more income you earned in the U.S., the less likely you were to go without health care. Lower income U.S. adults were far more likely than those with above average incomes to report difficulty with medical bills and timely access to health care.