Last week the Commonwealth Fund released a study claiming that more Americans with insurance cannot pay their medical bills. You can find the study here and the standard line on the study here. John Graham from the Pacific Research Institute and Peter J. Nelson from the Center of the American Experiment unveil some serious flaws in the study at StateHouseCall.org, such as the fact that households generally spend more on food, transportation (even before $4 gas), and shelter than on health care.
Shockingly, the uninsured and underinsured were more likely to skip recommended treatments than those with more generous insurance (read: insulation) benefits. While 30% of people with insurance forwent care because of cost, 50% of the underinsured and nearly 70% of the temporarily uninsured did. In the same way, more people are choosing to forgo safer cars to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles because of cost. In other words, the Commonwealth Fund wants everyone to just take their doctors’ advice and ignore the costs, even if there are better uses for the money or more cost effective ways to get the same result.
