Dive Brief:
- Almost one in four insured respondents to a poll by Morning Consult said they had delayed emergency care due to concerns about whether the costs would be covered, resulting in their conditions worsening.
- The poll, conducted on behalf of the American College of Emergency Physicians, provides significant insight as voters and policymakers prepare to determine the next administration's changes to the current healthcare system, suggested ACEP president Dr. Jay Kaplan.
- ACEP's new release argued that even though emergency care is an essential benefit required under the Affordable Care Act, high-deductible plans are leaving patients with too little insurance.
Dive Insight:
Underinsurance -- having health coverage but still being unable to afford medical care -- has been observed as a rising issue along with the trend toward high deductibles both under ACA plans and employer coverage.
Patients with such plans overall pay more but consume less healthcare, according to a recent Health Care Cost Institute study.
The number of patients identified as underinsured surged to 14 million adults as of 2015, up from 11 million two years before that, according to a 2015 Commonwealth Fund report. The authors concluded that high out-of-pocket costs do deter consumers' use of services they need, Modern Healthcare reported.
According to the CDC, the number of people enrolled in high-deductible plans has gone up 40% over the past six years.
The combined findings of the studies, along with the new poll, raise debate over the strategy of shifting costs onto consumers to reduce their use of unnecessary healthcare if it really means reduced use of healthcare overall.
"As a physician, it greatly concerns me that people are waiting until their medical conditions deteriorate to seek emergency care, which can have lifelong consequences," Kaplan stated, suggesting insurers are misleading consumers with "affordable" policies for which many don't understand the limitations until they try to use them.
ACEP's statement added the issue is exacerbated by lack of transparency around reductions of in-network physicians and hospitals, "leaving supposedly insured people barely covered in an emergency."