Rising health care costs threaten early detection: Study
Nearly 50% of Americans are worried they won’t be able to afford health care in the future, according to a Bankrate study. The trend could spell trouble for early detection which is key in managing serious diseases.
“We don’t want to wait to the point where there needs to be an operation done,” said Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, also known as “Dr. Mike,” during an interview on FOX Business’ “Mornings With Maria” on Monday. “Things disintegrate, cancers are best treated early. We want to get ahead of these things.”
Women are more worried about costs than men, according to the study, which notes about a quarter of women are shelving a visit to the doctor, compared to just 18% of men.
“Right now with health care costs skyrocketing, even outpacing wages in this country, women are factoring that into their decisions to go see a doctor,” Varshavski said. “That’s bad for someone like me who’s trying to keep people healthy from a preventive aspect. I don’t want cost to be a prohibiting factor.”
For those Americans that do seek out health care, a good majority of both men and women say costs ended up being more than expected, a factor Varshavski blames on additional fees that may come with seeing an out-of-network doctor.
“Hospitals feel like they need to increase prices to make up for treating patients that don’t pay their bills or that are not having insurance supporting them,” he said. “By law, the emergency department has to treat them so that cost has to be made somewhere,” he said.