Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
More than 45% of non-elderly adults with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) report financial hardship due to the associated medical bills, according to a Yale research team. Worse still, about one in five report being unable to pay those medical bills at all, said the researchers.
This study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
According to the study, which was scaled up from the data sample provided by the 2013-2017 National Health Interview Survey, the non-elderly American adults with ASCVD experiencing medical bill-related financial hardship represents an estimated 3.9 million individuals.
"It is remarkably disheartening to see how many people suffer severe financial adverse effects of having atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," said Harlan Krumholz, M.D., Yale cardiologist and director of the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE). "We have much work to do to ensure that people are spared the financial toxicity of disease that is imposed by our current healthcare system."
Of the group who indicated financial hardship, more than one in three reported that they have also experienced significant financial distress, cut back on purchasing basic necessities like food, and/or skimped on taking essential but costly medications in response to the burden of their medical bills.
Materials provided by Yale University.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2, Insightful) by J_Darnley on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:07AM (3 children)
If you Americans put down the fork then you could afford your medication. Put the fork down enough and you will no longer need the medicine.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:28AM (2 children)
While you do have a point, sometimes it's just the luck of the genetic draw.
I have a BMI of 22, I take absolutely no prescription drugs, my silly prostate didn't care about that when it decided to get cancer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:51AM
What year was it? There have been a bunch of unnecessary diagnoses since the mid 1980s. It is so huge that it skews the entire US cancer rate time series.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21551 [wiley.com]
https://wol-prod-cdn.literatumonline.com/cms/attachment/479916e1-e899-4965-a35d-7517620064cf/caac21551-fig-0002-m.jp [literatumonline.com]
(Score: 2) by J_Darnley on Monday February 18 2019, @10:32AM
Huh? Prostate cancer is now under the umbrella of heart disease? I should have said "heart medicine". Sorry about your cancer though.