Tuesday, December 02, 2014NEW YORK -- The Affordable Care Act has helped to boost the number of insured Americans to the highest levels since 2008. But a new survey from Radius Global Market Research shows that health-care costs are shifting to the consumer and resulting in new behaviors.
"Radius GMR's study shows that as costs shift to consumers, patients are making fewer office visits, switching medicines more often, and using nontraditional offices for care," said Kathleen Relias, senior vice president of Radius GMR and head of its health care practice. "These changes are impacting doctors' ability to have high-quality relationships with their patients. Patients will need greater transparency to make decisions about their health care as they trade off health care with other household expenditures."
One in three Americans ranks rising health care costs as one of their top-three concerns. Nearly half of all households experienced increased costs compared to last year and more than half anticipate more increases in the next six months.
More than half of those who experienced increased costs of health care costs in the past year are paying higher premiums. Most households think they can do better in terms of premiums with two-thirds of Americans covered via the Affordable Care Act say they'll change plans in 2015, Radius Global found.
About one in four households is visiting their doctor less often and/or experiencing longer waits at the doctorss offices. Some 24% of respondents indicate that it is getting harder to get an appointment with their doctor. In lieu of a timely appointment, most patients are likely to self-medicate either with over-the-counter medications or herbs/alternative treatments.
One-third of prescriptions are not covered by health care insurance, the survey found. In addition to having less access to name-brand drugs, prescriptions are more likely to be switched to generics if they are available. One-quarter of patients issued prescriptions have switched to generic. Within the past six months, one-third of chronic condition prescriptions were switched to generic.
Radius Global Market Research is one of the largest independent market research companies in the world.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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