Men tend to put off health care when it costs more, U study says

[dflprincess]

[div class = "excerpt"]

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/215767911.html

As high-deductible health insurance becomes more common in the United States, and especially in Minnesota, it may be causing men to make fewer trips to the emergency room — even when they have dangerous conditions such as kidney stones or heart trouble.
Men whose employers switched to such policies cut their ER use by nearly 20 percent the first year they were covered, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard Medical School....

...The study adds to a growing debate over whether raising consumers’ out-of-pocket health care costs leads people to scale back unnecessary doctor visits, as intended, or to skip needed medical care.

“This research should give policymakers reason to pause and ensure that changes associated with the Affordable Care Act, including the potential for further increases in the percentage of Americans with high-deductible plans, are carefully and systematically evaluated,” said Katy Kozhimannil, the lead author and a professor in the U’s School of Public Health. “We need to monitor impacts of changes in health insurance coverage on the quality of care.”

Insurance policies that require consumers to pay more out of pocket have spread rapidly in the last decade, buoyed by the theory that they will reduce overall health spending and keep premiums affordable. The number of people covered by such plans has tripled since 2006, affecting 13.5 million Americans...

..“We usually don’t think about men being vulnerable, we don’t think about men being at risk,” Kozhimannil said.


Apparently this study didn't address the growing evidence that these high deductible scams increase health care costs because people put off going to a doctor until a problem becomes more serious (and more expensive). The study did mention that women stop using the ER for minor ailments but do not put off visits for serious problems, but the focus was men's ER use.

On the "up side" maybe if men's health is being adversely affected by these plans, they'll stop pushing them on us.

[elleng]

1. I've heard that men put off health care just BECAUSE,

denial.

[dflprincess]

2. The study did not look at men's use of routine care

it was focused on use of Emergency Rooms. Apparently men with decent insurance are more apt to go into the ER when they think something major is going on but men who have to worry about how they'll pay for the visit will avoid it even when they may have an urgent problem.

It is true that men are less apt to make use of routine care - I don't imagine that high deductible health plans will encourage them to mend their ways in that regard.

[iemitsu]

3. We need single payer, universal health care coverage

with no out-of-pocket cost to the citizen, period.
I'm sick of the BS associated with for profit insurance trying to grab all of our money.
I'm sick of the immoral notion that someone should profit from another's illness, especially corporate America, who caused most of the illnesses Americans face.
I'm sick of our government spending our/my money to spy on us/me when they won't use any of it to cover the cost of our staying healthy.
Don't they realize that for workers, who haven't seen a real raise in 20 perhaps 30 years, that raising the cost of anything means consumers have to make hard choices?

[MiniMe]

4. They consider kidney stones dangerous?

I've had a few of them, and they are extremely painful, but I've never heard them referred to as dangerous.

[dflprincess]

5. While most stones do pass on their own,

they can be dangerous if they block urine flow to the point the kidneys shut down even if there's only a partial blockage that can cause an infection in the kidneys. In a really extreme case, if urine has not been able to drain into the bladder, the kidney can rupture.

Extreme pain also increases blood pressure and elevates the heart rate - depending on a person's general health that alone can make them dangerous.