Americans cutting back on health care to save money

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy



* Posted on Wednesday, October 7, 2009

By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Many Americans have been putting off doctors' visits, forgoing medical tests and taking expired medications to save money over the past year, according to a new poll by Consumers Union.

The survey by the nonpartisan organization found that 51 percent of Americans have "faced difficult health care choices in the past year."

...........

The Consumers Union survey of 1,002 adults from Sept. 17 to 20 found that among the ways people have tried to cut back on health care costs:

-- 28 percent put off doctors' visits.

-- 25 percent have been unable to afford medical bills or medication.

-- 22 percent put off medical procedures.

-- 20 percent declined medical tests.

-- 20 percent skipped filling prescriptions.

-- 15 percent took expired medication.

-- 15 percent skipped scheduled dosages of prescriptions.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/76733.html

[Oregone]

1. Fine them!

[cutlassmama]

2. This is just sad. n/t

[Rapier09]

3. Welcome to America

It gets worse with every passing year.

[roguevalley]

13. I need glasses but I can't afford them. Need to go to the quack for

a check up. Can't afford it. Thank God I am not young. I don't have to do this forever.

[Bonobo]

15. I buy off the shelf cheap glasses so I can read now.

Real glasses? It would cost me hundreds and hundreds I bet. First, an eye doctor here demands that you get a full eye checkup before they will test for a prescription. So that's like $200-$250 or so right there. Then, the glasses would likely be another hundred or more?

I just need reading glasses though, so maybe you can't get by with those...

[No Elephants]

16. You might be able to get a pair for $100 at a discounter like For Eyes on sale. Even there,

though, if you need bifocals, trifocals or progressive lenses, the price goes to a few hundred.

At other places, it's probably around $500 now, but I've been going to For Eyes for a while, so I have no idea what the current going rates are elsewhere.

And, of course, you can pay almost anything for frames. I checked some out at a mall in Boston, just for fun. They were $8,000 bc the arms were studded with real diamonds. (Only the arms. One doesn't want to be ostentatious, LOL.) Then again, that was about ten years ago, so they'd probably be twice that now.

Hey, why be greedy? Who needs both distance vision AND short distance vision? Just get the reading glasses at the drug store and you'll be fine. (not)

[Marthe48]

21. You could try your local Lions' Club

In the Mid-Ohio Valley (Marietta, Ohio/Parkersburg WV), the local Lions' Club have collected old prescription glasses and given them out to the needy. I don't know how they match the glasses to the people or if they trade the old ones toward new ones. I've given them several of my old pairs over the years.

I had a vision problem and a complicated situation in 2000-01. I ended up going to Low-Vision Center, a state agency, and the doctor there confirmed the problem I had and made lenses that corrected it. I will be forever grateful to them for helping me.

I read that before eye drs. had offices, they'd travel around in wagons, with a selection of spectacles. Anybody who needed glasses could try on the different glasses until he found one that improved vision.

[Oak2004]

19. You need to try Zenni Optical

Prescription glasses start at $8.00 (yes, that's eight as in less-than-ten)

http://zennioptical.com

The frames are cheap crap, but the lenses are the real thing. I don't know where the glasses are actually made, but I'll bet it's China or some unfortunate third world country. For that reason I recommend that people who can afford it patronize places that pay people what they're worth, and not Zenni. But if the choice is Zenni or not being able to see, well, there's Zenni.

You don't need a current prescription, either, to order through Zenni. You can even enter whatever it is you think you should be wearing (for example, I've tweaked my close-in vision prescription upward as my reading vision has gotten worse). Again, don't do this is you can afford to actually see an eye doctor. Optometrists and opticians do a vastly better job of eye care than you can do yourself.

Zenni has been keeping me in bifocals ever since VT Medicaid stopped paying for glasses.

[Iowa]

20. Yep. Zenni, Goggles4You, 39DollarGlasses.com... I've used them all

In fact, I just bought a pair of prescription sunglasses for $23 from Goggles4You (with a coupon). I have found this place is the best, all things considered. I've been doing this for awhile now, and many in my family do as well. A few things I've learned:

--You need to adjust your own glasses so they fit right, so it's best to stick with metal frames (as opposed to plastic). Here's a site that provides video instructions on glasses adjustments. I have gotten pretty good at it:
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_3630_adjust-eye-glasses.html

--Now that I'm retired, I stick with single vision lenses. They're cheaper and meet all my needs. I do have a pair of bifocals I used to use at work, but I never use them now. Now I use a pair for distance and a prescription specifically for the computer (just ask when they are writing the prescription and they'll do a computer prescription for you). Having a prescription specifically for the PC really makes a big difference. When I read books, I just take my glasses off. If I needed it for books, I'd just buy a pair of reading glasses. Bifocals suck big-time, IMO.

--Most online places offer prescription sunglasses for cheap and they let you choose the darkness. 90% is too dark for most uses. I just bought a pair with 90%, they were too dark, so I ordered another. That's the nice thing about ordering online - if you really mess up, you're only out $25 or so, you can re-order, and you've still spent only $50.

--Most glasses have measurements embossed on the left temple. When you're ordering online, measure a pair of glasses that fits you well (or get the measurements off the temple) and get something very close to that size.

Now that I can get decent glasses for ~$25 a pair, I'd never go back. I've been doing this for 8 or 9 years.

[Double T]

4. Yes, but things are certainly getting better on wall street and in corporate america.

Isn't that the only thing that really matters.

[Bonobo]

5. I'm one of them.

I tore something in my knee, but I can't afford it to be taken care of. I have insurance, it just sucks.

[leftyladyfrommo]

17. You can do what I had to do. I snapped a tendon.

I just wore a splint around my knee so I couldn't move it. Left it on for 6 weeks. Knee healed itself. I am not a doctor! Just another person who can't afford medical care so I just do the best I can.

[Bonobo]

18. That is basically what I am doing. That plus home rehab. Leg lifts, etc.

Short of surgery, it's all you can do. Build up those quads and hamstrings to compensate for the missing ligaments...

[leftyladyfrommo]

25. I didn't try leg lifts or anything. I just kept mine as still as possible

with a knee splint. Always walked straight legged with that thing on. Eventually that tendon just healed back up and has been fine since.

When mine first happened I went to the emergency room and saw a nurse there. She put the splint on it and "gave" me crutches. I never could afford to go back to see a doctor or anything but that splint worked.

[Chipper Chat]

6. I am one of the 15% that skips dosages.

I take my medicine every OTHER day instead of everyday as prescribed. I am NOT on my last nickel - just feel it's worth the risk to save money. Anyone else in this boat with me?

[diamidue]

22. mee, too. Sort of.

I'm not on my "last nickel" either, but instead of taking two pills daily, I take 1 and 1/2. I still have to pay for a month's prescription, but I'm able to save 25% of my pills each month. I like to have a little stash of pills tucked away - just in case......

[Seldona]

7. 51%?

How can there be an argument at all against 'reform?' I guess it is a very vocal 49% who just don't care. I hope someday history records just how bloodthirsty these 'Party Of No' fuckers really are.

[Bozita]

8. My dentist of 20 years "retired." Two years ago, we spoke of layoffs and insurance cutbacks.

He said it was impacting his practice. Dental insurance around here was disappearing.

Let me say we're in SE Michigan.

Anyways, I received a letter from his office last September stating that he'd injured his shoulder in a bicycle fall. And, he was recovering. Slowly. And he was retiring.

For all those folks who think that killing off UAW jobs is a selective strike at organized labor, I offer up my former dentist. And the hygienist, and the secretary/billing clerk/chief computer operator. And the folks who cleaned his office and washed his windows.

They're all good folks. I wish them well.

[AdHocSolver]

10. The coming depression will be worse than the 1930's and the voodoo economists are in charge.

The cause of the coming depression is the offshoring of jobs. Without jobs, the U.S. economy is stagnating. Instead of Americans earning money to pay their bills, we are forced to buy imports that produces a trade deficit so huge, that it can never be paid off.

When the foreign countries decide to stop providing anymore credit to the U.S., this economy will collapse catastrophically. It will be worse than the depression of the 1930's.

The current response to our problems, creating more debt to bail out the stock market, is comparable to throwing gasoline on a fire to put it out.

There is only one workable solution. Take control of trade and finance away from the corporations, bring jobs back to America, stop importing almost everything we buy, manufacture most goods in America, provide affordable health care to Americans, and the economy will correct itself.

Stop throwing monetary resources at the stock market. The economy is NOT the stock market. The stock market has become nothing more than a rich man's Ponzi scheme to cheat the middle class. The stock market can boom and the U.S. economy will still fail. Enron epitomizes the stock market.

[maglatinavi]

14. Solver

So be it! I hate to buy the so many made in China products... etc. Yessss bring the jobs back to the US!!! It is elemental...

[Michigan-Arizona]

12. Michigan

I never thought in my lifetime I'd see Michigan this bad off. When hubby & I went home(SE MICHIGAN) for a visit last month we were shocked to see just how many home's were being foreclosed or how many store's had closed their door's. Where my daughter work's their contract issue right now is they want to take away their health insurance of course. So many people I know out here in Arizona can't afford health insurance. Very sad!

[No Elephants]

9. This is nothing new. My son's friend died as a result of tthis. RIP David.

[nvme]

11. I am terrified

I can't go to my Dr. if i go for a chest scan I am sure the ugly truth will be known. I have smoked since I was 12(I am not happy about it, but thats another rant) if i have any problems I know my employer will be forced to let me go because I will force my small groups plan to skyrocket. Then I will be double screwed. I cannot get sick. I am in college again and have serious bills to pay. I have already been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. I know any insurer will just laugh once they see my medical records. So I just pray that no one ever gets to do a chest Xray. as long as that doesnt happen I will be fine.

[Mari333]

23. you bet we have.

cant afford it. I know many people who are doing this. fuck it, its too expensive.

[joeycola]

24. I think this will only get worse---even if something passes, it will take 3 plus

years to implement.