Skipping Out on Care
More and more Americans are skipping out on medical care out of fear of what it will cost them.
A shocking Gallup poll paints a dire picture: a third of American adults reported that their family couldn’t afford medical care in 2019, and one in four said that they put off care for a serious medical condition.
Those numbers are the highest they have been in three decades, and there is no sign that any reversal of the trend is in sight.
Not only does this mean the health of our family and friends is endangered by the untenable cost of care, it also has significant economic repercussions as well.
The Implications
Long term, neglecting medical care leads to health conditions intensifying and becoming more serious than they would have been if routine care was prioritized. This leads to increased healthcare costs over time. Those increased costs burden patients, employers, and governments which presents a negative ripple effect on the American economy.
Delayed care also has the negative short-term effect of reduced workplace productivity due to absenteeism and a workforce that is not prepared for peak performance, which in turn depresses the income of employers and employees alike.
Not being able to pay for medical care puts a person under an enormous amount of stress, but it also stresses our healthcare system (which, let’s be honest, isn’t a pillar of reliability in the first place).
Evidence of that stress can be seen in the increased use of emergency rooms and clinics. Patient visits to hospital emergency rooms increased by between 2001 and 2016, according to the American Hospital Association. While people may think they are saving money by forgoing routine care, it ends up costing them more in the long run because of the cost of paying for preventable health conditions that, when neglected, become emergencies. And just the fact that it’s next to impossible to get a last-minute appointment with a primary care provider or specialist these days leaves people with no choice but to head to urgent care or the ER.
It’s unacceptable that anyone must forgo needed medical care due to the financial burden. This is one of the biggest indications that our current system is broken.
At Amaze, our goal is to help Americans get better quality care at a lower cost by informing them about how and where they can get that kind of care. Amaze also has a team of medical professionals ready to talk to patients anytime, at no additional cost. We believe that the ability to ask simple questions such as, “should I start with an orthopedist, chiropractor or physical therapist for my back pain,” or, “can I send my kid to school with these symptoms,” shouldn’t require a trip to the doctor. At Amaze, we believe routine medical consultations should be as easy as calling your uncle—if he was a doctor—and that more involved medical care should be available when needed, not three months later.
Amaze is changing the way Americans view and access healthcare. Isn’t it time for you to talk to Amaze?
