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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.
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:06PM (2 children)
I don't think that's it, honestly. Vegetables are still cheap. Basic ingredients remain quite affordable. I can feed a family of four quite well for 4 weeks for $80 in NYC. There's an important caveat there, though: I have to assemble and cook the ingredients.
That's the rub for modern consumers. If you want other people--companies--to do all the work for you, you're gonna pay through the nose and find yourself ingesting mystery compound X.
Maybe the resort to processed food and fast food has grown because people have forgotten how to cook. I have read many articles like that over the last 20 years (sorry, don't have a handy citation in my back pocket). Maybe people think they don't have time to cook because they have to work harder and longer to afford skyrocketing costs in medical bills, rent, mortgages, car payments, and student loan payments.
There's the further cost-savings of growing stuff yourself. But that means gardening in the back yard instead of laying around watching Netflix, and planning out your meals and cooking for the week instead of posting on Facebook. Generally it means making different choices about how to spend your time and money.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:15AM (1 child)
For $5 a person a week, what are you feeding them? Couldn't even afford potatoes here for that ($8 for 20LBs), with a lettuce costing $2, a head of cauliflower hitting $5 a head and so on.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 20 2019, @04:57AM
it's not hard. we don't buy veg for more than $1/lb. we buy chicken on special. we buy eggs in bulk. in warmer months we supplement with produce we grow in the garden. we bake our own bread and make the rest of our baked goods from scratch. we eat leftovers for lunch the next day.
we eat well, too. once you know the keystone ingredients for major world cuisines you can easily vary dishes aroumd those. an ancillary benefit to that is we don't feel the need to eat out, and that saves a lot of money.
it does take time, though. we like to cook so that's not a big deal to us, but other people might not have the time or want to spend the time.
Washington DC delenda est.