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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 23 2019, @10:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the putting-things-off dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

A stitch in time saves nine?

High-Deductible Health Policies Linked To Delayed Diagnosis And Treatment

A study published last month in Health Affairs examined claims data from a large national insurer for 316,244 women whose employers switched insurance coverage from low-deductible health plans (i.e., deductibles of $500 or less) to high-deductible health plans (i.e., deductibles of $1,000 or more) between 2004 and 2014.

The study group consisted of women who were in low-deductible plans for one year, then switched to a high-deductible plan for an additional one month to four years. The control group consisted of women who remained in low-deductible plans.

In particular, the researchers looked at the relative effects of such plans on women who have low incomes versus those with higher incomes.

Women with low incomes who had high-deductible insurance plans waited an average of 1.6 months longer for diagnostic breast imaging, 2.7 months for first biopsy, 6.6 months for first early-stage breast cancer diagnosis and 8.7 months for first chemotherapy, compared with low-income women with low-deductible plans.

In some cases, delays of that length might lead to poorer health outcomes, says J. Frank Wharam, an internist and specialist in insurance and population health, who led the study. More research needs to be done to confirm that, he says.

Interestingly, women with high incomes who relied on high-deductible health plans were not immune to such delays — they experienced lags of 0.7 months for first breast imaging, 1.9 months for first biopsy, 5.4 months for first early-stage breast cancer diagnosis and 5.7 months for first chemotherapy, compared with high-income women with low-deductible plans.

The researchers also found that having a high-deductible health plan was linked to delays in care whether the women lived in metropolitan areas or not and whether they lived in neighborhoods that were predominantly white or predominantly nonwhite.

"In general, we are finding that the effects of modern high-deductible plans on access to care are sometimes predictable but often surprising," Wharam explains.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @01:24PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @01:24PM (#833825)

    Can someone please tell to a non-American what a "high-deductible" and a "low-deductible" health plan means?

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday April 23 2019, @01:55PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 23 2019, @01:55PM (#833851) Journal

    A deductible is an annual amount you must pay out of pocket BEFORE insurance will kick in and start paying. So, if you had a deductible of ${X}, then you would have to pay out of pocket for your first ${X} worth of health care in 2019 before insurance starts paying anything at all.

    What a high deductible health plan means is that your deductible is so high that you might be completely unable to pay it without being financially wiped out before you die in that plan year.

    What a low deductible health plan means is that once you have met your deductible for this year, insurance plan begins to pay, according to the terms and conditions, which are designed to ensure your speedy passing if it looks as though you might actually require any health care instead of just paying on the insurance payments and staying healthy.

    I hope that helps clarify.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday April 23 2019, @02:06PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 23 2019, @02:06PM (#833856) Journal

    https://www.firstquotehealth.com/health-insurance-news/high-low-deductibles [firstquotehealth.com]

    • Premium - The price you pay for your insurance each month. You must pay it even if you don’t use your insurance.
    • Deductible - The deductible is the amount of money you are required to pay upfront for medical care before your insurance kicks in. It excludes preventative care. Once you meet your deductible, the insurance company begins paying a greater portion of charges, which is known as the coinsurance.

    ...
    Higher Deductible Means Lower Premium

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:10PM (4 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:10PM (#833923)

    They also coined (pun intended) terms like "co-pay", "co-insurance", "individual responsibility", "fees" and more fees.

    Some deductibles are not annual- they can be per incident, per disease, per treatment, per hospital stay, a given number of days or months, etc. Any way they can grab more $.

    The problem: good old econ 101- supply / demand.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:54PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:54PM (#833958) Journal

      The problem: good old greed.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @09:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @09:03PM (#834041)

      Not supply/demand. Regulatory capture.

    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:39AM (1 child)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:39AM (#834291) Journal

      Don't forget "pre-existing condition", one of the few bits of the US health insurance bullcrap that Obamacare stopped.

      But the health insurance industry is still up to their old tricks. Classifying things and making rules and delays so that you still have to pay out of pocket for all kinds of care even though you are supposedly insured and covered.

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:37PM

        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:37PM (#834351)

        I fully agree. It's unbridled greed. This stuff is being exposed constantly, including major news investigations (20/20, 60 Minutes, etc.) and nobody's doing anything about it.

        > Don't forget "pre-existing condition", one of the few bits of the US health insurance bullcrap that Obamacare stopped.

        I was very grateful for that when it happened, but I thought at least some insurance companies were back to doing that?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:20AM (#834201)

    Can someone please tell to a non-American what a "high-deductible" and a "low-deductible" health plan means?

    A high-deductible means if you get sick, you are fucked.

    A low-deductible means every month when you get your astronomically high insurance bill, you are fucked.

    In the US, only rich people can afford health insurance.