Having access to affordable health insurance is no guarantee that a consumer will receive the full benefit of coverage.
In fact, a quarter of individuals who bought health coverage in 2014 through an exchange went without medical care included in their insurance because they felt they couldn't pay their share of the cost.
The two most frequently bypassed medical options: follow-up steps for a prescribed regimen of care and follow-up tests and prescription drugs.
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That's what a study of individuals who bought insurance through an exchange found. The analysis of Urban Institute data and the subsequent report were done by the nonprofit Families USA. Many of the conclusions drawn by the report weren't surprising: the lower one's income, the higher the deductible, and the higher the deductible, the greater the likelihood of bypassing medical care included in the insurance plan.
But the study also found that fewer of those individuals with low to middle incomes who bought insurance through an exchange tended to have high deductible plans than individuals in the same income bracket who purchased coverage outside the exchange network.
"Our data also show that many Americans with non-group insurance still have problems being able to afford needed care," the report stated. "Just over one-quarter of adults who were insured for a full year still reported that they went without needed medical care during that year because they could not afford it. People with lower to middle incomes were more likely to forgo medical care due to affordability issues than people with higher incomes (those with incomes at or above 250 percent of poverty).
"Furthermore, we found that people with high deductible health plans were more likely than those with lower deductibles to forgo care. These high-deductible plans are common, even among those with lower to middle incomes: Our analysis found that nearly two in five lower- to middle-income adults had deductibles of $1,500 or more per person."
To access the full study, visit Families USA.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
