Women more likely to skip on healthcare
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Bad news for American women: if you need health care, the US may not be where you want to live. That's because a new survey released by the Commonwealth fund shows that almost half have skipped seeing a doctor or taking their medicine because of cost.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
7/21/2012 (1 decade ago)
Published in Health
Keywords: healthcare, obamacare, medicine
LOS ANGLES, CA (Catholic Online) - The US is notorious around the world for having some of the highest costs in exchange for the least care when it comes to healthcare. It's ironic because the US is the world's wealthiest nation and home to some of the greatest technical and medical innovations.
In other industrialized countries, a much smaller percentage of women skimped on care because of cost. The survey reports that just 7 percent of British women took pass on their healthcare because of cost. The average across all industrialized nations was about 19 percent.
One of the greatest differences in the lack of universal health care coverage, which while most Americans agree it is needed, they cannot agree on how it should be implemented in a way that avoids the dangers of government over regulation while keeping costs reasonable.
However, health insurance did not appear to be a cure for what ails American women. Despite having insurance, US women still topped the charts of women who went without health care services because of cost.
Ultimately, the culprit is the very high cost of medical care in the US.
According to the study, women must pay $1 billion more than men each year for their health care. It is typical in the US for women to be charged higher premiums than men. The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) outlaws this practice, making all premiums the same starting in 2014.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen if Obamacare will actually bring down the costs of healthcare by compelling every citizen to purchase insurance or if it will prove disastrous by driving up costs while decreasing efficiency.
Meanwhile, whatever happens, women will continue skipping on their care until those costs can be brought under control.
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