Americans Delay Medical Care Due to Costs As GOP “Plows Forward” With Lawsuit That Would Eliminate Pre-Existing Conditions Protections & Increase Cost”

New Report Shows Americans Struggling Amid Pandemic Say Cost Is “Overriding Reason” They Aren’t Getting Care They Need

A new New York Times report reveals that “Americans who lost their jobs or have a significant drop in income during the pandemic are now citing costs as the overriding reason they do not seek the health care they need.” A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that “nearly half of all Americans say they or someone they live with has delayed care since the onslaught of coronavirus.”

Meanwhile, Washington Republicans are still plowing forward with their agenda to “terminate” health care and make it harder for Americans who have lost their health insurance to get care. As millions have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance during this public health crisis, Republicans have made it harder for out-of-work Americans to get health coverage by refusing to hold the Trump administration accountable for its unpopular decision to keep special enrollment closed. And Senate Republicans have repeatedly supported efforts to gut and undermine federal funding for Medicaid expansion even as access to care is “particularly tough in states…that did not expand Medicaid.”

To make matters worse, the pandemic has not deterred Republicans from moving forward with their lawsuit to tear down the entire health care law that expanded Medicaid and provides protections for pre-existing conditions. Every Republican senator voted for the GOP tax bill that set this lawsuit in motion, and not a single one of them has taken meaningful action to stop their party’s efforts to dismantle the entire health care law.

“Americans are delaying life-saving medical care amid a global health crisis because they can’t afford it, but Republicans are still charging ahead with their plan to ‘terminate’ health care and end coverage protections for pre-existing conditions,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Every single Republican Senate candidate must explain to voters why they still refuse to demand the Trump administration open a special enrollment period and won’t oppose their party’s reckless lawsuit to dismantle our entire health care system amid a pandemic.”

New York Times: Why People Are Still Avoiding the Doctor (It’s Not the Virus)

By Reed Abelson

Key Points:

• At first, Kristina Hartman put off getting medical care out of concern about the coronavirus. But then she lost her job as an administrator at a truck manufacturer in McKinney, Texas.

• While she still has health insurance, she worries about whether she will have coverage beyond July, when her unemployment is expected to run out.

• Ms. Hartman, who is 58, skipped a regular visit with her kidney doctor, and has delayed going to the endocrinologist to follow up on some abnormal lab results.

• While hospitals and doctors across the country say many patients are still shunning their services out of fear of contagion — especially with new cases spiking — Americans who lost their jobs or have a significant drop in income during the pandemic are now citing costs as the overriding reason they do not seek the health care they need.

• Among those delaying care, he said, was a patient with metastatic cancer who was laid off while undergoing chemotherapy. He plans to stop treatments while he sorts out what to do when his health insurance coverage ends in a month.

• The twin risks in this crisis — potential infection and the cost of medical care — have become daunting realities for the millions of workers who were furloughed, laid off or caught in the economic downturn. It echoes the scenarios that played out after the 2008 recession, when millions of Americans were unemployed and unable to afford even routine visits to the doctor for themselves or their children.

• Nearly half of all Americans say they or someone they live with has delayed care since the onslaught of coronavirus, according to a survey last month from the Kaiser Family Foundation. While most of those individuals expected to receive care within the next three months, about a third said they planned to wait longer or not seek it at all.

• And, just as the Great Recession led people to seek less hospital care, the current downturn is likely to have a significant impact, said Sara Collins, an executive at the Commonwealth Fund, who studies access to care. “This is a major economic recession,” she said. “It’s going to have an effect on people’s demand for health care.”

• The inability to afford care is “going to be a bigger and bigger issue moving forward,” said Chas Roades, the co-founder of Gist Healthcare, which advises hospitals and doctors. Hospital executives say their patient volumes will remain at about 20 percent lower than before the pandemic.

• But the consequences of these delays can be troubling. In a recent analysis of the sharp decline in emergency room visits during the pandemic, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were worrisome signs that people who had heart attacks waited until their conditions worsened before going to the hospital.

• “We’re all having those conversations on a daily basis,” said Dr. Christopher Crow, the president of Catalyst, who said it was particularly tough in states, like Texas, that did not expand Medicaid. While some of those who are unemployed qualify for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, they may fall in the coverage gap where they do not receive subsidies to help them afford coverage.

• In recent weeks, people have begun to return, but with conditions worsened because of the time they had avoided care. A baby with a club foot will now need a more complicated treatment because it was not addressed immediately after birth.

• Another child who did not have imaging promptly was found to have a tumor. “That tumor may have been growing for months unchecked,” Dr. Choueka said.

Read the full story here.

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